Director Todd Haynes has joined bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures for worldwide spot representation. Haynes–who directed I’m Not There, the biographical film about Bob Dylan, which just garnered four 2008 Spirit Award nominations–is making his first foray into the commercialmaking arena. Accompanying Haynes to Moxie is his longtime producer Christine Vachon. Plans call for Vachon to collaborate with Haynes on his spot endeavors and to work with Moxie to find other content opportunities for the director…Jonathan Cude has succeeded David Baldwin as executive creative director at Durham, N.C.-based agency McKinney. Baldwin resigned from the post–which he held for the past 10 years–to seek a new challenge. Cude has been with McKinney since 2003 when he came over from Wieden+Kennedy…..Jon Soto has joined BBDO West as executive creative director of the agency’s San Francisco shop. He will partner with Jim Lesser, executive VP/executive creative director, BBDO West, which encompasses the Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. Soto formerly served as executive creative director at Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco….Greg Ecker has joined Charlex, New York, as lead FX technical director following a six-year stretch as a freelance supervising effects technical director, effects tech director and CG programmer at assorted studios in New York….Sue Troyan has been hired as executive producer of Brickyard VFX’s Santa Monica facility. She spent the past nine years at Method Studios, Santa Monica, most recently as head of production. Brickyard maintains studios in Boston and Santa Monica….
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More