Great Guns has added director Robin Sheppard to its roster for global representation. After studying film and video to postgraduate level–and winning the Special Jury Award for her grad film The Thin Red Line at the 1993 Cork Film Festival–Sheppard launched straight into the industry to begin directing. Since then, she has been nominated for two BAFTAs–for a Wing and a Prayer and Playing the Field–and won a Grierson Award for Cherished in 2005. She was on the board of Directors UK for three years and has campaigned to champion female directors. Sheppard’s career has seen her direct some of Britain’s most iconic television series, including The Bill, New Tricks, and Benidorm. She has also directed episodes of Hulu’s original period drama Harlots, and Delicious, a culinary drama starring Ian Glen, Dawn French, and Emilia Fox. Most recently, Sheppard directed all episodes of Dun Breedin, a nine-part YouTube comedy-drama set in Brighton. Filmed and produced entirely in lockdown, the show explores the lives of a group of women who have bonded over difficult life experiences. Starring British TV notables including Denise Welch, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Tracy-Ann Oberman, the series followed all lockdown regulations, with the stars filming themselves in their homes while Sheppard directed remotely…..
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