Great Guns has signed commercial, documentary and drama director Finn McGough for representation in the U.S., Middle East and Asia.
McGoughโs commercial portfolio features a wide array of brands spanning Volkswagen, Marks & Spencer, McDonaldโs, E45, Shredded Wheat, Lloyds, Budweiser, and more. His appreciation for human stories shines throughout–for McCain, he crafted a heartfelt celebration of all types of diverse families; for Nokia, he followed a day in the life of the oldest active hockey player; for Cancer Research UK, he uncovered the way children are influenced by cigarette packaging, earning a Bronze Arrow and Silver Clio. In addition to further British Arrows accolades, McGough has also won a D&AD Pencil and two APA Top 50 accreditations.
As a documentary director, McGough has traveled across continents, making Lonely Planet guides in Kenya and Italy, and even being blindfolded and dropped in Azerbaijan for Channel 4โs Lost adventure series. His subsequent observational BBC films, The Professional Charmer and Summer With The Johnsons, picked up a PRIX EUROPA for Best Non-Fiction Film and a Royal Television Society Breakthrough Talent nomination.
In the drama realm, McGough was nominated for Best Film and Best Cinematography at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival for his short Flak, based on a story by Alan Sillitoe.
McGough said of Great Guns, โTheir reputation as a global producer of fine and varying work says it all, so Iโm looking forward to exciting times ahead (and to finally having a drink at their London pub–bonus!)โ
Michel Waxman, managing executive producer at Great Guns in the U.S., added, โFinnโs passion for incredibly relatable storytelling beautifully blends tiny grounded moments of life with cinematic scope, making it an ideal match with all the brands today seeking an authentic connection.โ
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More