Director Fred Savage, whose episodic TV comedy credits span It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Party Down and most recently Modern Family, has come aboard Über Content for U.S. spot representation. At press time, he was already busy shooting his first campaign for Über Content: Uni-Ball pens through new Chicago agency TRIS3CT.D
Savage is no stranger to commercialmaking. Last year he made his spot directorial debut with “Testers” for Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 videogame. That job was produced via MRB Productions for Ubisoft’s in-house San Francisco agency (SHOOTonline, 4/8/10)
Savage spent his childhood in front of the camera as the lead in The Wonder Years and at twelve became the youngest person to receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. During that period he also starred in the memorable films, The Princess Bride and The Wizard.
After graduating from Stanford in 1999, Savage made a successful transition to the other side of the lens, as evidenced by his three DGA Award nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs, the last coming for the pilot episode of Zeke and Luther (2009). He moved into episodic comedy with the aforementioned Party Down for Starz, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia for FX, and Modern Family on ABC.
Savage’s extensive directorial experience and natural gift for eliciting great comedic performances attracted Über Content. “Fred’s television work is truly some of the funniest out there. His ability to bring home fantastic performances is obvious from his body of work and after meeting him and hearing his excitement to jump into the advertising world, bringing him aboard Über was a no-brainer,” said Preston Lee, partner/executive producer of Über Content.
Savage joins an Über Content directorial roster that includes Amir Farhang, Jeffrey Fleisig, Elma Garcia, Luis Gerard, Chris Hooper, Jason Kohn, Eliot Rausch, Marc Schölermann, Steven Tsuchida, and Cole Webley.
Review: Drew Hancock Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “Companion”
"Iris, wake up!"
Early in "Companion," lovely Iris and her nerdy-nice boyfriend Josh are driving to a secluded lake house for a stay with friends. Iris wakes from a nap and lovingly tells Josh she was dreaming about him. They reminisce about how they first met at the supermarket. All those oranges tumbling onto the floor! Ha ha.
In 20 minutes, absolutely everything about this sweet scene will be turned on its head in a terrifying and sinister manner. You will be surprised and shocked. Unless you saw the trailer, which reveals the whole thing.
And so we begin with a dilemma, dear moviegoer. "Companion," an exceedingly clever and entertaining sci-fi-horror-thriller-comedy by Drew Hancock in his feature debut, has more twists and turns than a corkscrew. But it's utterly impossible to write about the film without revealing the first of those twists.
So if you like coming in totally cold to a movie, then we're sorry to see you go, but stop reading! Otherwise, stay with us — we promise there'll be more surprises to come.
Moving on: Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) arrive at the estate. A nervous Iris stops at the door, worried that Josh's friends won't like her. He urges her to simply brighten up and act happy.
Kat (Megan Suri), Josh's ex, greets them. She is gorgeous, and frosty to Iris. Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his handsome boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) are nicer. Then there's Sergey (Rupert Friend), Kat's aloof Russian boyfriend — sugar daddy, really — and owner of the house. The password to his devices is Stalin's birthday, which tells you something.
Things get dark, quickly. The next morning, someone dies. They will not be the first — this is a horror movie. And suddenly Iris, caked in blood,... Read More