International creative company Cutters Studios has secured Bobby Rowe and Sean C. Sullivan as its new sales representatives on the U.S. East and West Coasts, respectively. In the Midwest, Cutters Studios continues to be repped by Sean M. Sullivan and Marni Halliburton of Collective Management. Rowe recently launched his own self-titled management company after having spent the past year as a luxury real estate agent at The Corcoran Group. For the previous four years, he was head of sales for animatic production specialist 321Launch, where he successfully established assorted prolific partnerships with international brands and agencies. Also an outstanding advertising composer, Rowe led business development for New York-based MAS: Music and Strategy. Sean C. Sullivan, meanwhile, joins the Cutters Studios staff in Santa Monica as West Coast business development director. Formerly the owner/EP of boutique strategy, animation and production house +DISPATCH, he led production for Chase, Coca Cola, Disney, ESPN, IBM, the NFL, Nike, Spotify and many others. Sullivan launched +DISPATCH in 2016 upon his departure from Apple, where he held the position of producer/project manager. That experience followed nearly two years as sr. project manager for Los York, where he managed all content for the Jordan Brand account in partnership with creative agency AKQA. At Los York, Sullivan’s efforts contributed to Jordan’s “The Last Shot” project winning a Gold Cannes Lion and dozens more major industry awards. Cutters Studios is part of a family that includes its partner companies Another Country, Dictionary Films, Flavor and Picnic Media. Cutters maintains operations in Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo….
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More