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.
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Delay TikTok Ban
President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a "political resolution" to the issue.
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.
"President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act's deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case," said Trump's amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump's choice for solicitor general.
The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.
He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger... Read More