The directing duo of Spooner/French—Nick and Andrew, respectively—has signed with bicoastal/international The Artists Company….Roe Bressan has been named managing director of The Whitehouse, New York. She comes over from New York-based Spontaneous Combustion. Prior to that, she had a long tenure as managing director of Red Car, New York….Director Alex Turner has joined Link Entertainment, New York….Director Mike Wang, who continues to be handled for spots by Culver City, Calif.-based Cognito Films, has secured music video representation via Lot 47 Productions, New York….Director TJ House—whose former commercial roost was Warner Bros. Classic Animation, Sherman Oaks, Calif.—has joined Los Angeles-based Duck Soup Studios for exclusive spot representation.….Lisa Hollingshead has been named executive producer of Visitor, the Hollywood-based shop founded by director James Wahlberg….On the strength of his spec spot reel, director Mike Gray has landed at Denver-based Dewey Obenchain Films….Editor Dan Clougherty has joined Santa Monica-based ARTiFACT. He had most recently been with 501 Post, Austin, Texas….Byron Cameron and Sandy Christian have launched Padded Cell, a Coconut Grove-Fla.-based media solutions company producing commercials, corporate, sales and marketing projects. Cameron, who was previously VP sales and marketing for Battle Medialab, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., holds the title of president at the new company, while Christian will act as writer/producer/director…John Turturro has a window to direct spots that extends for several months as he juggles an itinerary that includes his portraying Howard Cosell in a TNT movie entitled Monday Night Mayhem, and acting in Deeds, a movie starring Adam Sandler. Turturro is also slated to direct an undisclosed feature likely to be executive produced by the Coen brothers. Turturro is repped for commercials via bicoastal Coppos Films….Director Brendan Donovan is again available for spots via Compulsive Pictures, New York, after wrapping principal photography on Grasp, a science fiction short film that will air on the Sci Fi Channel’s Exposure television series….
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More