Los Angeles-headquartered Top Dog Films, a division of bicoastal RSA USA and London-based RSA Films, has signed filmmaker Martin Scorsese for exclusive commercial representation…. At press time, director Tenney Fairchild of bicoastal M-80 Films and his producer, Glenn Rudoloph, were recuperating at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, after a car accident that occurred last Saturday (8/4). Both are expected to make a full recovery, according to M-80 executive producer Gregg Stern. Fairchild was scheduled to embark on a Hyundai job at the time of the accident; filling in for him on the assignment is director Thom Higgins….Bicoastal production house Here And Now has opened with a directorial roster that includes Keva Rosenfeld, Brian Ades, Nick Quested and Danny Weisberg. The shop also handles director Louis Ng on the East Coast. Here And Now is part of the Stoney Road family of companies….Director Clark Anderson, formerly of Rhythm & Hues, Los Angeles, has joined Ka-Chew!, the recently launched live-action commercial division of Hollywood animation studio Klasky Csupo. Also jumping aboard Ka-Chew! is director Bil White, who shifts over from sister spot animation shop Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials….Itemus, the Toronto-based parent company to the recently shuttered Shooting Gallery Inc., has filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada….Lee Garfinkel is joining D’Arcy as president/chief creative officer, worldwide. Based in New York, he becomes part of a trio serving in the agency’s newly configured office of the president, joining president/CEO John Farrell and president/chief branding officer Susan Gianinno. Garfinkel most recently served as chairman, chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas & Partners…. John Butler, co-founder of Sausalito, Calif., agency Butler Shine & Stern, has been elected president of the board of directors of the One Club for Art and Copy, the New York-headquartered nonprofit group that promotes creativity in advertising….Gary Ward, former executive producer/partner of the recently closed Crash Films, has been named executive producer of Mad River Post/Santa Monica….Thom Sidoti, a well-known line producer, has become executive producer at Copper Media, the West Hollywood-based production house headed by president Mel Gragido….Composer Klaus Badelt has joined Santa Monica-based music and sound design company Primal Scream…. Seattle-headquartered design house Theorem has added designer Ludovic Schorno, and expanded into Southern California with the launch of a studio in Culver City….
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