Miller's joining signals imminent opening of West Coast office; feature filmmaker Tennant looks to make spot inroads
By Robert Goldrich
LOS ANGELES --Grand Large Inc.–the production house founded by president/executive producer Steven Horton 10 years ago–has laid the groundwork for the launch of a full-fledged Los Angeles operation with the hiring of Jonathan Miller as West Coast-based exec producer. Horton, who heads Grand Large’s New York and Paris offices, estimates that an L.A. area shop will be up and running in the next couple of months with Miller at the helm.
Additionally, Grand Large has brought a U.S.-based director aboard its largely international roster, securing feature filmmaker Andy Tennant whose credits include Hitch starring Will Smith, Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon, Fools Rush In starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek, Ever After with a cast headlined by Drew Barrymore, and Anna and the King starring Jodi Foster and Dhow Yun-Fat. Tennant will be available for select spots via Grand Large. He is no stranger to the advertising arena, having directed commercials years back for such clients as McDonald’s and Quaker Oats. Furthermore he grew up in the ad business, his father being Don Tennant, former worldwide creative director at Leo Burnett, Chicago.
Miller noted that he is currently working towards bringing another U.S.-based director into the Grand Large fold. Plus there is some other resident stateside talent already making inroads, including the Tall Black Girls collective who’s on the roster of Grand Large’s new-media shop GL-X. Tall Black Girls, a trio of males whose experience spans directing, producing and editing, recently wrapped a GL-X-produced web series for Cartier/Fast Company titled Make Your Move, which profiles leading entrepreneurs. Also gaining traction in the American ad market via GL-X is New York-based director Leif Husted Jensen whose spot credits span such clients as President Obama’s healthcare plan, Panera Bread and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Jensen’s roots are in documentary filmmaking.
In addition to building a core of U.S.-based directors, Miller will be looking to gain stateside agency projects for a Grand Large roster of international filmmakers, including Paris-based Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro (Jeunet and Caro teamed to direct such influential French features as City of Lost Children and Delicatessen), Tran Anh Hung (whose credits include the features Norwegian Wood and The Scent of Green Papaya), Bettina Rheims (a noted photographer who has diversified successfully into commercials in Europe with such credits as L’Oreal, Lancome and Chanel), Fred Garson, Serge Guerand and Tom Kan, New Zealand-based Gaysorn Thavat, Australian spotmaker Tracey Rowe, Austria-based Shizue, and Mark Tiedemann. The latter, who first made his mark in the American ad market, has in recent years been residing in Europe where he’s built a comedy reel.
Miller said he was drawn to Grand Large by its coterie of talent. Borrowing a phrase he heard uttered by the now late, great photographer Richard Avedon in response to a question from interviewer Charlie Rose, Miller noted that he was taken by the opportunity to join “a creative community of consequence.”
Miller had been serving as a consultant for Grand Large just prior to and then immediately after his recent stay in India where as head of studio operations for Reliance MediaWorks he helped get the ball rolling on a Mumbai production facility. Upon getting to know Horton and the directors at Grand Large over time, Miller decided he wanted to graduate from consultant to full-time staffer at the company.
Career parallels
Horton said that Miller’s extensive experience encompassing the production house and ad agency sides of the business makes him the ideal choice to help Grand Large attain a higher profile in the U.S. In fact, Horton and Miller’s careers have parallels in terms of agency and production company pedigree. Horton served as an agency producer at Grey New York and then FCB New York before moving to Paris in ’96 to assume a head of production role at noted production company Premiere Heure. In ’01, he departed that company to launch Grand Large in Paris. In ’07, he moved back to New York to open a U.S. operation for Grand Large.
Miller too first established himself on the agency side, producing for Chicago shops Leo Burnett and FCB. He then moved over to the production house scene, among his roles being president of Image Point Productions (the TV commercial division of Cannell Studios), then Harmony Pictures and eventually his own Jonathan Miller & Co. Miller later returned to the agency side as managing director of Mutiny, the then in-house production service company of TBWAChiatDay in Los Angeles.
Subsequent career stops included Miller opening his own production house under the Two Trick Pony banner, serving as managing director of Raleigh Film Budapest (laying the foundation for Raleigh Studios’ production services venture in Hungary), and assuming marketing director duties for Aero Film before getting into consultancy gigs such as the one for Grand Large.
“Overnight Success” Has Been More Than A Decade In The Making For Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson
Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit "The Perfect Couple," have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of "Gossip Girl." Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's "This Must Be the Place." They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles — "The White Lotus" for Fahy and "Bad Sisters" for Hewson — that have led to new frontiers of opportunity.
Susanne Bier, who directed "The Perfect Couple," says both Fahy and Hewson are "going to be big stars."
"They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways," Bier says. "Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do."
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of "Bad Sisters, " out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called "Sirens," written by Molly Smith Metzler ("Maid") for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor ("The Crown," "Challengers") and Brandon Sklenar ("It Ends With Us").
The two actors spoke candidly about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and... Read More