HOLLYWOOD—Forest Park Pictures—a Hollywood-based feature company launched last year by actor/producer Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) and his brother, producer Tove Christensen—is laying the groundwork for a diversification into commercial production. The shop has hired Peter Michels, formerly an art director at global retailer the Gap’s San Francisco-based online arm, to develop and head a spotmaking division.
Michels, who serves as VP of commercial production/executive producer, has taken a lead role in assembling a roster of spot directors for Forest Park. He is also in the process of forming a sales team, making initial contacts with independent reps in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
Forest Park has already gotten its feet wet in the spot arena, having entered into a Far East Asian alliance with director Paul Street and his Streetlight Films, which maintains shops in London and Brisbane, Australia. Via the latter operation, Streetlight is looking to package helmer Street and Hayden Christensen as an actor/spokesperson for commercials designed to reach audiences in the Far East and Down Under. The timing is fortuitous for Christensen, who will be in Australia soon for the filming of the next Star Wars film.
Currently, the relationship between Forest Park and Streetlight does not include the former company representing Street for spots. Street is currently considering his production company options in North America while he continues to helm work for Europe and Asia via Streetlight.
Tove Christensen noted that he and his brother are attracted to the ad discipline on several fronts, including the chance to link with commercial directors whose talent could translate into longform projects being produced by Forest Park. According to Tove Christensen, Forest Park has a prospective feature film currently in development for Street.
Forest Park has already wrapped its first feature, Shattered Glass, a co-production with Cruise-Wagner Productions, Baumgarten Merims Productions and Lions Gate Films. Slated for release in the fall, the film stars Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass, a young political journalist whose star career crashed and burned when it was discovered that a high percentage of his stories written for The New Republic were partially or wholly fabricated. The feature was written by Billy Ray (Hart’s War, Suspect Zero), who makes his directorial debut with the project.
Tove Christensen noted that it’s conceivable Forest Park could on occasion make feature helmers available for spotwork, though that would not be the primary thrust of the commercial division. Christensen added that he and his brother are also drawn to the ad arena based on new emerging forms of sponsored content, such as the BMW series of shorts from Fallon Minneapolis. Forest Park plans to be involved in mainstream spotmaking, as well as branded entertainment projects.
Michels envisions Forest Park’s commercial division as being boutique-sized, with a roster of perhaps three or four directors. Whether or not Street links with Forest Park for stateside representation remains to be seen. Street related that he made a conscious decision to stay out of the U.S. market over the past year-plus so as to build his European reel, which he has done, successfully broadening into people-based storytelling and dialogue while maintaining his steady involvement in automotive advertising. With pan-European spots for his car clients (i.e. Peugeot, Ford) continuing, Street has moved into other genres and product categories, helming for Coca-Cola, Sky Television, Hugo Boss and Nescafe, among others.
Street said he wants to carefully deliberate over his next production company affiliation for American spot representation. He has been handled in the past by Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials (1998-’01), and then briefly by Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago (SHOOT, 12/7/01, p. 7). He acknowledged not having secured much U.S. work through those shops, which may have been due in large part to limited availability given his strong European client base. However, when he establishes a new U.S. connection, Street plans to make his schedule more accommodating to American ad assignments.
Tove Christensen said that Forest Park sought out Street after seeing several of his spots, with two European car ads making the most lasting impression—first Ford Puma’s "McQueen," which incorporated footage of late actor Steve McQueen from the ’68 film Bullitt. Street made a major international splash with that European commercial in ’97.
Two years later, the director re-teamed with the same agency, Young & Rubicam, London, and post/effects facility Rushes, London, on an ad for the Ford Cougar, which combined contemporary footage of actor Dennis Hopper with footage of Hopper from the ’69 classic Easy Rider. That spot, which also piqued Forest Park’s interest, was quizzically titled "???????" and was featured in SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (1/8/99, p. 13).
Streetlight Films is a longstanding U.K. company, which opened an Australian office a couple of years ago as Street set out to draw business from the Australian and Far East Asian markets. Tove Christensen noted that via its newly struck deal with Streetlight, Forest Park gains access to production footholds in Europe and Australia to facilitate international spot production.
