Director Paul Haggis, who helmed the 2006 Best Picture Oscar winner Crash, has signed with Saville Productions for exclusive commercial representation in the U.S. Haggis is the first person to win two Best Picture Academy Awards in a row. In 2005, Million Dollar Baby earned Best Picture distinction; Haggis was a producer and wrote the adapted screenplay for that Clint Eastwood-directed film.
Haggis’ writing for Million Dollar Baby garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay; the next year he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Robert Moresco) on the strength of Crash. He became the first individual to have written Best Picture Oscar winners in two consecutive years.
Haggis also earned a Best Director Oscar nomination on the basis of Crash. And his third Oscar nom for writing came in 2007 for the Eastwood-helmed Letters From Iwo Jima (shared with Iris Yamashita for Best Original Screenplay)
Known for his dramatic storytelling, Haggis–who was earlier repped for spots by @radical.media–comes aboard a high-profile roster of feature film directors at Saville, including Martin Campbell, Barry Levinson, James McTeigue, Bryan Singer, Wim Wenders and Roger Michell. Saville also maintains a lineup of established commercial directors such as Lance Kelleher, David Harner, Daniel Borjesson, Ago Panini and Robert Nylund.
Saville executive producer Rupert Maconick said of Haggis, “Paul’s modern human stories are the perfect marriage for advertising concepts in the U.S.” Maconick noted that Saville is already in its first production together with Haggis, a job promoting a sports product out of a New York ad agency. The Haggis-directed spot is scheduled to debut in June on Father’s Day.
Saville Productions is represented on the East Coast by Michael Eha, in the Midwest by Nikki Weiss and on the West Coast by Connie Mellors and Ellen Dempsey-Hines.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More