Director John Adams has joined Form, the Los Angeles-based production house headed by executive producer Craig Rodgers and director Jesse Dylan. Adams comes over from Area 51 Films, Santa Monica, his roost for the past three years….Word is that bicoastal/ international Partizan and director Anthea Benton have parted ways….Bicoastal Naked Project has signed director Paul Vos for spotwork….Lisa Margulis has come aboard bicoastal Anonymous Content as an executive producer. She served in the same capacity at her former roost, bicoastal HKM Productions. Margulis joins Anonymous shortly after the departure of executive producer Shelly Townsend who became managing director of bicoastal Headquarters. Margulis becomes part of an Anonymous commercial management team that also consists of Dave Morrison and executive producer Andy Traines……Directors Sean Mullens and Wayne Holloway have departed bicoastal Brand, a satellite of bicoastal Headquarters. "Sean and Wayne are indeed moving on," Headquarters partner/president Tom Mooney said in a statement. "Sean and I have had a wonderful working relationship over the past few years, I have a great deal of respect for him, and I wish him all the best. Wayne was only with us for a year, but I enjoyed working with him, and I wish him well." Partner/executive producer Brian Farhy is also leaving the company. As for the future of Brand, Mooney said, "With regard to Brand, it’s certainly a possibility that we’ll maintain and restructure the company, but I haven’t made any decisions as yet"….Editor Dave Herman has joined Version2. Editing, New York….Veteran animation and visual effects producer Andrea Mansour has been named head of commercials for San Francisco-based animation studio Wild Brain. She last served in a production management role for CMT, a division of MTV Networks, in Nashville. Earlier in her career she was a senior producer at San Francisco-headquartered visual effects house Radium….Digital Kitchen, Seattle, Chicago and Venice, Calif., has hired executive producer Wendy McCarty, most recently of post facility Avenue, Santa Monica and Chicago. McCarty will work out of the company’s Seattle office…
Stage and Film Actor Tony Roberts Dies At 85
Tony Roberts, a versatile, Tony Award-nominated theater performer at home in both plays and musicals and who appeared in several Woody Allen movies — often as Allen's best friend — has died. He was 85.
Roberts' death was announced to The New York Times by his daughter, Nicole Burley.
Roberts had a genial stage personality perfect for musical comedy and he originated roles in such diverse Broadway musicals as "How Now, Dow Jones" (1967); "Sugar" (1972), an adaptation of the movie "Some Like It Hot," and "Victor/Victoria" (1995), in which he co-starred with Julie Andrews when she returned to Broadway in the stage version of her popular film. He also was in the campy, roller-disco "Xanadu" in 2007 and "The Royal Family" in 2009.
"I've never been particularly lucky at card games. I've never hit a jackpot. But I have been extremely lucky in life," he write in his memoir, "Do You Know Me?" "Unlike many of my pals, who didn't know what they wanted to become when they grew up, I knew I wanted to be an actor before I got to high school."
Roberts also appeared on Broadway in the 1966 Woody Allen comedy "Don't Drink the Water," repeating his role in the film version, and in Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" (1969), for which he also made the movie.
Other Allen films in which Roberts appeared were "Annie Hall" (1977), "Stardust Memories" (1980), "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Radio Days" (1987).
"Roberts' confident onscreen presence — not to mention his tall frame, broad shoulders and brown curly mane — was the perfect foil for Allen's various neurotic characters, making them more funny and enjoyable to watch," The Jewish Daily Forward wrote in 2016.
In Eric Lax's book "Woody... Read More