Executive producer Bryan Farhy and director Wayne Holloway have exited bicoastal Basecamp Entertainment….Curious Pictures, New York, has signed design and directorial collective panOptic for spots….Sydney, Australia-based director Paul Middleditch has joined bicoastal Public Works for exclusive commercial representation in North America….Director Brad Steward and executive producer Amber Ventris have teamed to launch Crova, a production house with offices in Santa Monica, and Portland, Ore. The new venture opens with a directorial roster that also consists of Matt Goodman and Jasan Radford…. Matthew Pomerans, formerly an executive producer at bicoastal/international Satellite, has joined Santa Monica-based Area 51 Films as an executive producer. Meanwhile, Mark Thomas continues as executive producer at Area 51, and now adds the title of managing director….Editor Bob Mori, formerly of Cosmo Street, Santa Monica, has joined Superior Assembly Editing Company, Santa Monica….Marc Schwartz has joined Fluid Post, New York, as managing director. Formerly, he was general manager at Spontaneous Combustion, New York.…Composer Mike Pandolfo has joined JSM, New York. He was formerly with Amber Music, New York and London….Editors Gavin Tatro and Angelo Valencia, and visual effects artist/graphics designer/compositor Eric Pham have come aboard 501 Post, Austin, Texas….Kelly Hickel, chairman of Paradise Music & Entertainment, has taken on the additional role of president at the publicly traded bicoastal company. Stepping down as Paradise CEO is David Pritchard, former CEO/president of North Hollywood-based animation studio Film Roman. Hickel—who is also chairman of iballMedia, a San Diego firm servicing consumers with traditional and online delivery of music and music-driven events—came aboard Paradise in February when the company reached a memo of understanding to merge with iballMedia. That merger will probably be finalized later this month. Paradise is the parent company to bicoastal spot production companies Straw Dogs and Shelter Films, as well as Nashville, Tenn.-headquartered music video/concert film/commercial house Picture Vision….
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More