The directing team of Kuntz & Maguire–Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire–of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ) is amicably parting ways after 10 years of working together. Kuntz will remain on the roster at MJZ while Maguire will move into the position of associate creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, on April 11.
The desire to write again propelled Maguire to make this decision. “I love Tom more than a brother,” Maguire said. “He has been like my best friend for the past ten years–it was not moving away from anything, it was just moving towards something.”
Both men report happiness in their new situations and for one another. “It sounds like a cliché, but I think change is always good and I’m excited,” Kuntz said. “Mike and I had a great [working relationship], we had a really fun way of working, but I’m excited to be working on my own. I think directing as a team obviously can and does work but it also has a lot of complexities to it. So I am excited to work in an arena that doesn’t have those complexities.”
Further explaining his take on the situation, Maguire noted, “I never thought of it as it came time to move out of MJZ and move out of the directing partnership–If I could have it my way, I would work at Goodby Silverstein and work at MJZ and work with Tom because I love all of those things. But, unfortunately, you can’t do all of them and for me, I had to go where my heart was leaning and that was the idea of getting back into writing.”
The directors’ last project together was a package of three :30s for Citibank through Fallon, Minneapolis, which is currently being edited.
Kuntz said he will continue to concentrate on commercials and music videos. When asked if he will continue to helm comedy, he said, “I think generally I tend to solve problems in some kind of way that makes you smile or laugh. But I don’t see myself just continuing on being a quote unquote comedy director. I’d rather be more of a filmmaker.”
Meanwhile Maguire said he is ready to work on anything and might even direct some of the work he will write.
Kuntz and Maguire met in the Peace Corps before joining kirshenbaum bond & partners, New York, in 1995–Kuntz as an art director and Maguire as a copywriter. From ’98-’99 the duo worked as a writing/directing team in MTV’s on-air promotions department. They then joined now-defunct Propaganda Films as a directorial team and in ’01 signed with MJZ.
Their clients include Monster.com (UK), Visa and Virgin Mobile. In ’03, the directing duo won a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival for two spots in a Budweiser campaign, “Birthmark” and “Loaded,” through DDB Chicago. The two men also directed a feature, The Onion Movie, which does not yet have a release date.
Maguire said there is a possibility they will work together again, but his focus is on this new chapter. Speaking for himself and his friend he said, “It feels new, it’s really invigorating.”
