Heidi Gottlieb and Doug Wedeck have amicably parted ways as partners in New York-based Single Bid. Wedeck will continue to head Single Bid, while Gottlieb is currently weighing her options. In the meantime, she will be working through her New York company, Realist….Computer Café, Santa Monica and Santa Maria, Calif., has signed Laura Zinn of New York-based Zinndependent for representation on the East Coast and Detroit, and Kelly Class of Class Represents, Marina del Rey, Calif., for Midwest sales…. Dallas-based rep firm Jack Reed Reps has been signed to represent Atlanta-based Comotion Films in Texas and the Southwest…. Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Ambitious Entertainment has added director/cameraman Robert Crombie for worldwide representation….DPs Mike Maley and Bernard Auroux, and production designer Johannes Spalt, have signed with The Martins Agency, Santa Monica….Dana Locatell has joined creative digital studio R!OT, Santa Monica as national executive producer for new business. He was formerly at Creative Management Partners, bicoastal and Chicago, where he served as an account manager….
In NBC’s “Brilliant Minds,” Zachary Quinto Plays Doctor–In A Role Inspired By Physician/Author Oliver Sacks
There's a great moment in the first episode of the new NBC medical drama "Brilliant Minds" when it becomes very clear that we're not dealing with a typical TV doctor.
Zachary Quinto is behind the wheel of a car barreling down a New York City parkway, packed with hospital interns, abruptly weaving in and out of lanes, when one of them asks, "Does anyone want to share a Klonopin?" — a drug sometimes used to treat panic disorders.
"Oh, glory to God, yes, please," says Quinto, reaching an arm into the back seat. The intern then breaks the pill in half and gives a sliver to the driver, who swallows it, as the other interns share stunned looks.
Quinto, playing the character Dr. Oliver Wolf, is clearly not portraying any dour, by-the-rules doctor here — he's playing a character inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks, the path-breaking researcher and author who rose to fame in the 1970s and was once called the "poet laureate of medicine."
"He was someone who was tirelessly committed to the dignity of the human experience. And so I feel really grateful to be able to tell his story and to continue his legacy in a way that I hope our show is able to do," says Quinto.
He's a fern-loving doctor
"Brilliant Minds" takes Sack's personality — a motorcycle-riding, fern-loving advocate for mental health who died in 2015 at 82 — and puts him in the present day, where the creators theorize he would have no idea who Taylor Swift is or own a cell phone. The series debuts Monday on NBC, right after "The Voice."
"It's almost as if we're imagining what it would have been like if Oliver Sacks had been born at a different time," says Quinto. "We use the real life person as our North Star through everything we're doing and all the... Read More