Denver-based agency Cactus has launched an in-house production arm called Peyote Pictures. The new venture will be led by executive producer Brooke Woodruff, a long-time producer with the agency who most recently served as production director….
IWCO Direct, a Chanhassen, Minn.-based provider of data-driven performance marketing solutions, has named Reid Holmes as its new executive creative director. Holmes brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing to the company. In his previous roles, Holmes has led the growth of multi-discipline creative teams, and has managed work for brands including H&R Block, Burger King, the Mayo Clinic, Domino’s Pizza, KeyBank, and Toro. His work as a writer and creative director has been honored with awards from The One Show, the ECHO Awards, the Effies, and the Cannes Lions. In addition to his recent experience as an independent consultant, Holmes has served at agencies including Doner, McCann, Carmichael Lynch, and Ogilvy & Mather….
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More