Production company No Smoke has brought on Michael Merryman as executive producer. The announcement was made by Andrew Swee, partner and executive producer at Creative Film Management (CFM), the production management company of which No Smoke is a unit.
Merryman has enjoyed a multifaceted career in the space where art, advertising and entertainment intersect. In 2011, he co-founded Durable Goods, a company known for producing moving images for brands and entertainment properties, connecting talent with ideas and communicating clearly with clients in an open, creative atmosphere.
Earlier, Merryman enjoyed a 15-year freelance career beginning while in film school (literally sweeping stage floors) and continuing through nearly every creative department—with forays in the art world, TV and ultimately back to directing commercials—before realizing his true passion as an executive producer. Since then, his focus has always been on bringing his particular point of view to the creative process by working intimately with directors to capture value in their vision while achieving the overarching goals of the clients and agencies that make it all possible.
“Michael’s cross-disciplinary experiences uniquely suit him to help us lead No Smoke and CFM to its next chapter,” Swee said. “He’ll serve as a liaison between talent, ideas, and production while opening new paths to growth.”
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film “Conclave” and the series “Say Nothing” won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USC’s Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the year’s most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for “Conclave.”
In accepting the award, Straughan said, “Adaptation is a really strange process, you’re very much the servant of two masters. In a way it’s an act of betrayal of one master for the other.” He joked that “You start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,” crediting author Robert Harris for being “so kind, so generous, so open throughout.”
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode “The People in the Dirt” from the limited series “Say Nothing,” which Zetumer adapted from Keefe’s nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this year’s extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying “projects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USC’s Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.”
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. “If ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,” she said, “you have only to go to a... Read More