Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) announced that Michael Sammis has been appointed president of Universal Publishing Production Music (UPPM), a division of UMPG that creates, produces, and licenses a broad style of music for use in film, television, advertising, broadcast and other media. He succeeds Gary Gross.
Sammis, a 21-year veteran of UMPG, where he most recently served as the company’s CFO and executive VP of operations, will continue to be based in Santa Monica and report to Jody Gerson, chairman and CEO of UMPG.
In making the announcement, Gerson said, “As a senior member of our executive management team, Mike has played a central role in helping transform UMPG into the premiere home for the world’s greatest songwriters. With his experience integrating two of the largest publishing acquisitions in the history of the business and building a finance and administration structure second to none, I can’t think of anyone better to lead our production music business to the next level.”
“Great production music helps drive narrative and creates lasting impressions with audiences. This is what appealed to me about UPPM,” Sammis said. “I’m thrilled to move over to lead our brilliant production music company and help them build toward an even stronger future. I would like to thank Jody and Marc Cimino, UMPG’s chief operating officer, for their faith in me and for giving me this incredible opportunity.”
By owning both the master and the copyright for compositions, UPPM provides clients with efficient and cost-effective licenses and solutions. The company’s production music libraries include Chronic Trax, EVO, FirstCom, Killer Tracks, MasterSource, Network Music, and OneMusic from the U.S.; Galerie, Koka Media and Kosinus from France; Match Music from Sweden; UBM from Germany; RCAL from Italy; Vitamin A from Australia; and Atmosphere Music, Match Music, Bruton and Chappell in the U.K. UPPM has production music library operations throughout the world, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Benelux, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, South Africa, Australia, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Asia.
Harris Dickinson Toys With Ambiguity In “Babygirl” While Keeping a Secret From Nicole Kidman
Harris Dickinson was nervous to approach Nicole Kidman.
This would not necessarily be notable under normal circumstances, but the English actor had already been cast to star opposite her in the erotic drama "Babygirl," as the intern who initiates an affair with Kidman's buttoned-up CEO. They'd had a zoom with the writer-director Halina Reijn, who was excited by their playful banter and sure that Dickinson would hold his own. And yet when he found himself at the same event as Kidman, shyness took over. He admitted as much to Margaret Qualley, who took things into her own hands and introduced them.
"She helped me break the ice a bit," Dickinson said in a recent interview.
On set would be an entirely different story. Dickinson might not be nearly as "puckishly audacious" as his character Samuel but in the making of "Babygirl," he, Kidman and Reijn had no choice but to dive fearlessly into this exploration of sexual power dynamics, going to intimate, awkward, exhilarating and meme-able places. It's made the film, in theaters Christmas Day, one of the year's must-sees.
"There was an unspoken thing that we adhered to," Dickinson said. "We weren't getting to know each other's personal lives. When we were working and we were the characters, we didn't veer away from the material. I never tried to attach all of the history of Nicole Kidman. Otherwise it probably would have been a bit of a mess."
His is a performance that reconfirms what many in the film world have suspected since his debut seven years ago as a Brooklyn tough questioning his sexuality in Eliza Hittman's "Beach Rats": Dickinson is one of the most exciting young talents around.
Dickinson, 28, grew up in Leytonstone, in East London — the same neck of the woods as... Read More