Original–headed by executive producers Bruce Mellon and Joe Piccirillo–has reached out to London to sign commercial comedy director Nick Jones whose credits include funny spots for eHarmony, Sony PlayStation, AT&T, Mercedes-Benz, Walmart, McDonald’s, Kia and Heineken. Original will represent Jones exclusively for advertising projects in the U.S. He had previously been repped stateside by Recommended and continues to be handled in the U.K. by PointBlank.
Jones has been directing commercials for 10 years, after beginning his career in music videos and television. His strengths are in casting, writing, performance and dialogue. He also has a keen visual eye and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the technical side of filmmaking.
For a recent eHarmony ad, he designed a steel support system, built into a couch, to hold the weight of a 1,300 pound dromedary (who was “matched” to a hapless young man by an inferior dating service).
In advertising, Jones’s humor often centers on ordinary folk caught up in oblique or incongruous situations. A recent ad for the financial services Affinity Plus takes the form of a banal testimonial but gives it a wry twist: a couple gushes about a loan officer who is so eager to please, she serves as their surrogate mother. In a spot for Subway a man leading an exercise class through a lively Zumba session wakes to find he’s been hypnotized and has been dancing in a theatre full of people while clad only in his underwear.
“I’ve been very lucky to been given good material by people who’ve trusted me to make the most of it,” Jones said. “And many of them have come back to me more than once.”
Jones honed his casting eye while working on such British television series as Bruiser and Eastenders. He gave a first break to a number of actors who have since gone on to great success, including Martin Freeman, Simon Pegg and Ricky Gervais.
