Director Jonathan David, the helming duo of kenandanny (a.k.a. Kenan Moran and Daniel Kaufman), and executive producer Steven Shore have teamed to launch N.Y.-based production company Happy Ending. The new venture reunites the foursome and marks Shore’s return to the production house arena after he took a two-year hiatus to set in motion the adaptation of the 1970s’ cult movie Super Fly to the Broadway stage.
Shore and David had collaborated previously at Shelter Films where the director’s work on adidas, Dunkin’ Donuts and Nike garnered Cannes Lions. Kaufman and Moran directed individually at another former Shore roost, CZAR/Public Domain, before coming together as a directorial duo at Happy Ending. Now Happy Ending represents not only the duo but also Moran as a solo director.
The Happy Ending roster is rounded out by Belgium-based director/photographer Toon Aerts and Austin, Texas-based directing collective Color Chart. Shore and Aerts worked together at CZAR in the U.S. where the director’s work on Asics (gel.tv) won a Cyber Lion. (Brussels-based CZAR continues to handle Aerts in Europe.) Meanwhile Color Chart was formed in Prague where its members–James Longmire, Tristan Love and Edward Shore–met at FAMU, the Czech film and dramatic arts academy.
Several jobs have already been wrapped under the Happy Ending banner, including a pair of client-direct projects for Sonic Drive-Ins: a two-spot package directed by David and a viral video helmed by Color Chart. David has also recently wrapped a Comedy Central promo campaign out of Amsterdam-based ad agency Nothing. Toon Aerts shot the print component of that Comedy Central campaign.
Lineup
David is known for performance-based comedy. He began his career with the BBC as a documentary filmmaker, roots that dovetail with his observational approach to comedy which includes an emphasis on casting and performance. His work over the years has been recognized on the awards show circuit, including Cannes, the AICP Show, Clio Awards, The One Show and the D&AD. David was last handled by Form and prior to that TWC, GO Film and MJZ. Before hooking up with MJZ, he worked with Shore at the former Shelter for five years.
Kaufman continues to be repped as a solo director via Bully Pictures while Moran was with No Smoke and prior to that Curious Pictures after he spent five years with Shore at Public Domain. The idea of them becoming a directing team was hatched back at Public Domain where Kaufman and Moran were inspired by the backstory of CZAR/Public Domain’s Lionel Goldstein, two local Belgium directors who teamed at mid career and became a global success. Kaufman and Moran co-directed a Comedy Central campaign produced by Curious which scored two honors at the 2006 AICP Show: the spot “Xerox” was recognized in the Comedy category, and “Billboard” in the Low Budget category. However, it wasn’t until their reunion with Shore at Happy Ending that Moran and Kaufman formally came together as the team of kenandanny.
Moran began his career in the promo/graphics department at MTV. Kaufman came to directing from the world of dance and performance and has authored a book of photography titled “To Be A Man.” His first directing effort for Post Cereal–“Cats In The Cradle” conceived by a team at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco–was featured in SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery and went on to win a 2002 AICP Show honor in the Spec category.
As for Color Chart, the aforementioned Sonic Drive-In web viral marks that directing team’s ad project debut. Happy Ending is also the trio’s first commercial production house roost.
Happy Ending becomes the third production house founded by Shore, the others being Shelter Films in 1992 and Public Domain in 2002, which the following year entered into an affiliation with CZAR. In addition to his commercialmaking in the broadcast space, Shore produced such notable fare as viral videos for Diesel and Folger’s (the lauded “Happy Morning”), a feature-length interactive online film ESP Billy for Microsoft, and a feature-length branded entertainment film for Nike Skateboard titled Nothing But The Truth which premiered at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre in 2008. The earlier mentioned Broadway production of Super Fly is slated to open in 2012 and is being co-produced with Tommy Mottola, and on board as director and choregorapher is Bill T. Jones (Fela, Spring Awakening).
Happy Ending’s sales force consists of independent reps Drew Miller on the East Coast, Maureen Butler in the Midwest and Lisa Gimenez Toliver on the West Coast.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More