SMUGGLER has promoted executive producer Sue Yeon Ahn to U.S. managing director.
Based in Los Angeles, Ahn has spent her career in the commercial and music video world, working with brands like Apple, Nike, Calvin Klein, as well as such artists as Jay-Z and Run The Jewels.
Patrick Milling Smith, who founded SMUGGLER with Brian Carmody, said that the managing director role is new at SMUGGLER and “one that’s been a long time in coming. Sue brings her unique elegance, focus, and distinct point of view to everything she touches. There are big dreams afoot at SMUGGLER, and we feel very fortunate having the team we do, bristling with ambition and experience–all wanting to swing hard.”
Ahn executive produced Apple’s “The Underdogs” campaign which was followed by a brilliant sequel in 2020–“The Whole Working-From-Home Thing” directed by DGA Award-nominated Mark Molloy and shot with a minimal crew, innovating the way to produce in the era of COVID. The seven-minute film has continued to sweep awards season, earning a Cannes Gold Lion for Achievement in Production and a Grand Prix at Ciclope.
Prior to SMUGGLER, Ahn worked as EP for The Directors Bureau, founded by Roman Coppola. Ahn began her career as an assistant to Coppola, before transitioning into the production space. While at The Directors Bureau, Ahn executive produced Arcade Fire’s “We Exist” music video, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2014.
In her new post, Ahn will continue to executive produce and develop talent across SMUGGLER’s roster.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More