Saville Productions, Beverly Hills, has signed filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell for commercial representation. Mitchell is the acclaimed director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and last years’ highly controversial film, Shortbus.
Mitchell initially started out as an actor appearing in theater, numerous television series and movies before moving into directing. In 1998, he wrote Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an off Broadway musical play about Hedwig, a transgendered rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs. Three years later, he directed the feature film version of the play, casting himself as Hedwig. The film and play were critical hits and have each spawned a cult following. Mitchell received the best director and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prix at Deauville. The film was honored as best directorial debut by the National Board of Review and the L.A. Film Critics Society. Mitchell was also nominated for a Golden Globe as best actor.
After the success of Hedwig, Mitchell expressed an interest in financing, writing, and directing a film which would incorporate explicit sex in a naturalistic way. That movie would be called Shortbus. Completed in ’06 after a two-year long talent search and shooting process, it was presented in May ’06 at the Cannes Film Festival. Shortbus also won awards at the Zurich, Athens and Gijon Film Festivals.
Mitchell has directed music videos for Bright Eyes and Scissor Sisters. For the latter he helmed “Filthy/Gorgeous,” which was banned from American MTV for its explicit sexual content. He also directed the video for Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life” which has had more than 330,000 views on Youtube.
“John’s work is bold, provocative and highly entertaining. This is a perfect combination to make great ads or longer branded content film,” said Johnny Doran, Saville’s executive producer. “Also, having been an actor for so long, John has a wonderful rapport with talent resulting in convincing performances”
Mitchell’s latest film in development is a modern fairy tale called Oskur Fishman.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More