The Mill, the commercial postproduction company headquartered in London with a second facility in New York, plans to launch a shop in Santa Monica. Plans call for the facility to open in January…Dana Garman, formerly West Coast managing director for bicoastal Supply and Demand, has started superstudio, a Santa Monica-based production house…..The directing team of Rankin & Chris and French helmer Jean-Claude Thibaut have joined north6 films, a division of bicoastal print production company north6. Back in March, north6 diversified into spotmaking, landing Holly Vega, former head of production at Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, as executive producer for the then newly formed north6 films…..Director Mike Harris has signed with New York-based design and production studio Freestyle Collective….Millennium Pictures, Santa Monica and Detroit, has secured directing team The Snudge Bros. (Liam Greenlaw and Paul Alexander) for exclusive North American representation. Greenlaw first established himself as a designer/director and Alexander as a still photographer……Marc Siegel has been named exec producer at Kommitted Films, a Santa Monica shop featuring director Nathan McGuinness. the Kommitted banner has been informally up and running since late last year to help McGuinness, CEO/creative director of Asylum Visual Effects, diversify into directing……
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