The management team at bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures—president Steve Wax, managing director Allison Amon and executive producer Lisa Mehling—has reached an agreement to acquire what’s described as a "significant" ownership stake in the company from publicly held, Minneapolis-headquartered iNTELEFILM Corp. The deal takes Chelsea Pictures off of the sales block; earlier this year, iNTELEFILM had announced that it was considering selling its commercial production house subsidiaries, including Chelsea Pictures (SHOOT, 5/4, p. 1)….San Francisco-headquartered interactive firm Red Sky has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to reorganize. According to a Red Sky spokesperson, Seneca Investments LLC, an e-services holding company, will purchase Red Sky’s assets pending approval by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York. Seneca is a joint venture between Omnicom Group and Pegasus Partners II, an investment company based in Greenwich, Conn. The Red Sky spokesperson said that the company’s entertainment division—which was formed last fall after Red Sky acquired animation/effects/live-action studio Olive Jar, Boston and Burbank, and multimedia outfit White Noise, Los Angeles—would continue to operate….New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery is likely to file for bankruptcy protection, according to its parent company, Toronto-headquartered itemus, which is potentially liable for $10 million in Shooting Gallery debt. Virtually all of Shooting Gallery’s staffers were laid off at the end of June, some two months after itemus finalized its deal to acquire Shooting Gallery. Among the casualties was Shooting Gallery’s commercial and music video arm, Shooting Gallery Productions (SGP), which closed on June 26, despite having been a profitable operation (SHOOT, 7/6, p. 1)….Jeanine Pepler has joined bicoastal First Look Media as executive producer of the company’s commercial and Internet divisions: First Look Artists and First Look Internet, respectively. She replaces Linda Ross, who left First Look to pursue another opportunity….Director David Wagreich has joined Santa Monica-based Omaha Pictures. He was formerly represented by bicoastal/international @radical.media….The Directors Network, headquartered in Studio City, Calif., has signed directors Ron Ames and Allen Weiss to work in that freelance-director venue created by company founder/directors’ agent Steve Lewis. Ames and Weiss come over, respectively, from now defunct Crash Films and SGP….Writer/director/actor Alan Cumming has signed with bicoastal Zooma Zooma for spot representation. Cumming most recently co-produced, co-wrote and co-directed the feature The Anniversary Party with Jennifer Jason Leigh….Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart has signed director Simon Brand and entered into an alliance with his Miami-based production house, Kree8….Director/cameraman Serge Roman has joined Metro Pictures, Marina del Rey, Calif., for exclusive spot representation in the U.S….Chicago-based commercial music/sound design house Catfish Music has signed composer/musician Alex Kemp as a staff composer….In other Chicago news, post boutique Spots BME has added editor Mike Buhrow….Freelance agency producer Jane Jacobsen will become head of broadcast at Sedgwick Rd. (formerly McCann-Erickson), Seattle, effective Oct. 1….
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More