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.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More