Erik Vervroegen, formerly executive creative director/president of TBWA Paris, has joined Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, as creative director.
Vervroegen told SHOOT he will “work on anything they need me to work on,” noting that he looks forward to contributing to various accounts as well as helping to cultivate new business for the agency. At press time, he was handling creative on a project for Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Vervroegen began his career as an art director in Belgium. He subsequently worked at TBWA Hunt Lascaris in South Africa, and then at Bozell in New York.
In January 2002, Vervroegen became executive creative director at TBWA Paris, and in September ’03 took on the additional role of president. Under his creative guidance, the agency went on to win hundreds of international awards, including the Grand Prix and Agency of the Year honors at both Eurobest and Cannes, as well as a total of 70 Cannes Lions. Among the clients whom he did notable work for at TBWA were Nissan, Sony PlayStation, and Amnesty International.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More