Filmworkers has contracted Nathan Skillicorn and his indie firm Heart, Brains, & Nerve to serve as its sales representative in the Midwest. Skillicorn will represent Filmworkers and its affiliate, the hybrid production studio Vitamin–both based in Chicago–for advertising projects. Skillicorn will promote all the various services offered by Filmworkers and Vitamin, which range from traditional postproduction services such as visual effects, compositing and color grading, to design, graphics, animation and design driven production. He will also seek appropriate opportunities for other companies associated with Filmworkers, including creative retouching and pre-media specialist Giannini Creative….Dattner Dispoto and Associates has added to its talent roster DPs Ross Riege, Ken Glassing and Bradford Lipson, production designers Dania Saragovia, Ken Macleod and Eric Beauchamp, and costume designers Nancea Ceo and Annie Spong….
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More