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.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More