London-based production company Blink now has a U.S. presence. The company has set up an office in Venice, Calif., headed up by executive producers Elizabeth Newton and Jeremy Smith, and has signed its first U.S.-based director—Sam Jones. A director and still photographer, Jones helmed the well-received 2002 documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart for Wilco, which chronicled the making of the band’s fourth album….Bicoastal Moxie Pictures and Grammy-nominated music supervisor Randall Poster (School of Rock) are launching a joint venture, Search Party. The new shop will concentrate on music for the commercial/branded content arena. Poster’s other credits include Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Velvet Goldmine, Starsky & Hutch and Something’s Gotta Give…. Mary Cheney, formerly head of broadcast production at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, has joined Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, as a VP/senior producer….Bicoastal Anonymous Content is handling U.S. representation for the directors at Therapy Films, London. Anonymous continues to rep Therapy’s Malcolm Venville but now adds such other helmers from that U.K. shop as Mark Denton, Guy Manwaring, James Haworth and Simon Levene….Noted film composer Philip Glass (The Truman Show, The Hours, Secret Window) has joined Los Angeles music/sound design house Groove Addicts to make his spot debut, an Altoids campaign for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago….Editor James Lipetzky, formerly of Red Car, Santa Monica, has launched Foundation Post with offices in West Los Angeles and Chicago. Coming aboard the new shop’s Chicago facility is editor Steve Morrison, who had been at Superior Street, Chicago….Steele VFX has entered into a strategic alliance with visual effects supervisor and computer animator/director Wayne England and his company Spatial Harmonic Productions to provide computer animation services through the Steele studio. While retaining its independence, England’s company will set up shop in Steele’s Santa Monica headquarters and effectively act as its in-house computer animation department….Agency vets John Boiler, Glenn Cole, Robert Nakata and Greg Perlot have launched 72andSunny, an ad shop with offices in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Nakata will head the Amsterdam office; he is best known for his tenure as a creative/designer at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Amsterdam. Boiler is a W+K veteran in the U.S. and Europe; he formerly served as executive creative director of W+K, Amsterdam. Cole was most recently W+K’s European creative director on Nike. And Perlot was senior VP at Publicis/West and prior to that was director of advertising and corporate research at Microsoft….Sony Corp. has sold Culver Studios, a historic Culver City, Calif., complex which features 14 soundstages and other production resources, to a group of El Segundo, Calif., and New York investors. The buyers include New York securities firm Lehman Bros. Holdings, El Segundo real estate investment company Pacific Coast Capital Partners and its affiliate, Pacifica Venture Partners….Due to incorrect info provided to SHOOT, the name of Cindy Nielsen, who was promoted to editor at Chinagraph, New York, was misspelled in last week’s Street Talk column….
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More