Content production company Recommended has signed Jen Giles to handle Midwest representation. Recommended’s directorial roster includes Cynthia Wade, Woods, Scott Zabielski, Phil Abraham and Snorri Sturluson….kaboom productions, headed by exec producer Lauren Schwartz, has signed with B/Lush Creative, under the aegis of Deirdre Rymer, for exclusive West Coast representation….Commercial production veteran and former Superfad managing director Kevin Batten has launched Pop-Arts Management, a management and production-consulting firm which represents design, animation, production and VFX companies for commercials and content. Batten’s deep production experience at studios such as Digital Kitchen and Brand New School, and agencies including Deutsch and Wieden+Kennedy, enables Pop-Arts to package multi-disciplinary projects under one roof for clients. Pop-Arts currently reps Logan, Logan & Sons, Gentlemen Scholar and Great Guns….Curious Film, Australia/New Zealand, is diving into the North American market with the appointment of Chicago-based Chris Breneman as head of sales USA. Breneman is now the local US link to Curious’ directors and a team of Australasian producers with experience spanning 12 years in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Curious’ directors–Darryl Ward, Ash Bolland, Miki Magasiva. Regan Hall, Robin Walters, Sally Shapcott, Sam Kristofski, Stephen Kang, Summer Agnew, Tammy Davis and Zia Mandviwalla–are already well known in the US for campaigns like Old Navy and Air NZ….DP Phedon Papamichael, ASC (a Best Cinematography Oscar nominee for Nebraska), is now repped for commercials at UTA….
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More