LEXUS, TEAM ONE, PLAYTONE "TALK"
Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone, along with Lexus’ LStudio have launched web series The Three Minute Talk Show, which premiered last month on LStudio’s Broadband Channel. The series, which debuts a new episode every Wednesday at www.lstudio.com, features everything that audiences have come to expect from a talk show all condensed into approximately three minutes. Saturday Night Live veteran and Emmy®-nominated comedian Barry Sobel hosts the show along with Emmy-nominated actor Fred Willard, who serves as co-host. The show’s band is led by international music star Ben Lee.
Guests confirmed to appear include Jon Cryer, Bryan Cranston, Johnny Knoxville, Stephen Moyer, Wilmer Valderrama, Ginnifer Goodwin, Cedric the Entertainer, Joe Jonas, and Mike O’Malley. Series creator Tom Hanks was the star guest on the first episode.
“The Three Minute Talk Show is exactly the type of content we strive to showcase on LStudio,” said Dave Nordstrom, Lexus’ VP of marketing. “Our goal has been to create an online destination with high-quality, thought-provoking material that consumers would want to return to again and again. Playtone’s innovative and entertaining content is the perfect fit and represents the next big step in establishing LStudio as a premiere, branded entertainment site.”
Content for LStudio.com is produced and distributed by Intelligent Life Productions in collaboration with Team One Advertising for Lexus. Creative Artists Agency brokered the deal for The Three Minute Talk Show with Intelligent Life Productions.
RUCKELS BUILD DREAM HOUSE
Postproduuction vet Fred Ruckel, creative director at Stitch, New York, is now a TV series creator/producer as he and his wife Natasha have teamed on Dream House, a primetime series on the DIY Network based on their trials and tribulations in constructing a get-away home in the Catskill Mountains. The series chronicles the entire process from buying the land to applying the last coat of paint on the log cabin.
Dream House debuted last month and has been running weekly. In the first half-hour episode, the Ruckels had to deal with a nasty neighbor who puts them in a compromising position, a contractor that can’t see the light through the trees, and a robbery.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS…
Independent San Francisco ad agency Venables Bell & Partners has promoted Erich Pfeifer from associate creative director to creative director. A six-year veteran of VB&P, Pfeifer has played a key role in the agency’s growth from a 24-person shop to the 164-person agency it is today. While at the agency, he’s led Audi, producing some of the most talked about automotive and Super Bowl advertising. He led Audi’s “Green Police” Super Bowl spot which was not only nominated for an Emmy last year, but also received almost three billion earned media impressions with coverage on The Today Show, CNBC and The Early Show….Editorial house Beast has hired Mark Anderson as Smoke artist for its Chicago facility. He joins Beast after a two-year stint at Crash + Sues, Minneapolis, where he worked with a diverse list of clients such as Target, Best Buy, AAA, Subaru and FedEx. Prior to Crash + Sues, he spent 10 years at Avenue Chicago where his clients included Disney, Toyota, Crate & Barrel, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. Beast maintains facilities in Santa Monica, New York, Austin, Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco….
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