Robin Benson has formally launched Company, a Los Angeles production house with a spot directorial roster that includes Philippe Andre, The Coen Brothers, Fred Goss, Sara Marandi, David McNally, Jeff Thomas and Harald Zwart. Benson and Richard Goldstein will be the company’s exec producers. Robert Nackman has been named head of production….Director Paul Riccio has come aboard The Sweet Shop, New York, which is headed by exec producer/partner Steven Shore….Washington Square Films, New York, has signed director/DP Carolina Zorrilla de San Martin, who’s wrapped her first project for the production house, a Gardasil assignment via Prime Access, New York….Charlotte, N.C.-based ad agency BooneOakley has hired Craig Jelniker as head of broadcast production, a new position at the shop. Jelniker previously served as senior producer/VP at Element 79, Chicago….The Whitehouse, bicoastal, Chicago and London, has added Dan Maloney as a full fledged editor in its New York shop. He had been freelancing as an assistant editor at the company and also freelance cut some work there as well, including a recent PSA for Air France and international children’s rights organization ECPAT through Euro BETC, Paris….
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