Hustle, a strategic business development and management agency representing creative and production talent, has gone bicoastal with the appointment of Mike Lobikis as partner/talent rep for the West Coast. This extends the sales force’s representation of production company Partizan into the West Coast market, in addition to its ongoing duties in the East. This added reach follows growth in the New York office, since Hustle added to its group by bringing on Jenn Johnson, president of NY-based firm Open Season, as a partner. Johnson’s background as both an agency producer and rep for top studios like B-Reel, Radical, and Identity, has quickly proven to be invaluable to the growth of the firm. Hustle has an expansive East Coast live-action roster led by NY-based partner Anya Zander, including Partizan, Ruffian, Tool of NA, Sweetshop, Humble, Whitehouse Post, and NO6. The partnership with Lobikis signifies the expansion of Hustle’s live-action offering on the West Coast, where it also currently reps experience/design companies such as MediaMonks, Jam3, and Resn (under the leadership of Hustle founder Jake Neske.) Lobikis has spent the past decade representing award-winning creative talent. Most recently serving as executive producer at MassAppeal, Lobikis produced content for brands including Nike, Patron, and Asics, while finding niche, direct-to-brand ways to elevate the studio’s offering, including creating SoundCloud’s first-ever advertising campaign. Prior to that, Lobikis served as head of development at Tool where he was instrumental in leading a global business development team and building partnerships with myriad clients to great success. Lobikis will serve as the LA-based counterpart to NY-based Zander, who has been at the helm of Hustle for the past six years, since she merged her own repping firm with the company. At that time, Zander brought on senior sales agent Andrew Michaeloff from Partizan, and together they grew the live-action division, as well as their post/VFX/design and music offering, while Neske focused on building the interactive side…..
DP Luca Del Puppo has joined Innovative Artists for representation in both commercials and narrative. He has worked on films such as Slender Man and with brands such as Levi’s, Toyota, Gillette and Haagen Dazs….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More