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.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More