Acclaimed film and commercial director Ridley Scott will curate the Saatchi & Saatchi annual New Directors’ Showcase for this one special celebratory year at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in June.
Saatchi invited Scott to take on the task as his RSA Films celebrates 50 years of commercial production. Recently honored with a BAFTA fellowship and having such recent feature credits as All the Money in the World and The Martian, Scott will work with Saatchi and VFX house MPC to select this year’s reel of the best new directing talent.
Saatchi’s Showcase has been wooing and wowing audiences at the Cannes Lions Fest for the past 27 years. The Scott family and RSA have a long association with the Showcase. Jake Scott, for example, was featured in the very first Showcase in 1991. And RSA/Black Dog Films alumni Chris Cunningham and Dawn Shadforth were featured in 1997 and ‘99, respectively.
Television producer Mark Burnett, left, looks on as President Donald Trump arrives for the National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 2, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Mark Burnett, the power producer who helped reintroduce Donald Trump to a national television audience with "The Apprentice," is being tapped by the president-elect as special envoy to the United Kingdom in his upcoming administration.
"With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role," Trump announced Saturday.
Burnett, who was born in London, helped produce hits like "Survivor" and "The Voice," but is perhaps best known for teaming up with Trump for "The Apprentice," which first aired on NBC in 2004.
Trump had been well-known in real estate and pop culture circles for decades. But the show helped again make him a household name — though Trump severed ties with NBC in 2015, the same year he launched his first White House run.
The selection of Burnett continues Trump's trend of filling out his incoming administration with people who have high-profile backgrounds in television or politics, or both — including his choice to be defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, a former co-host of "Fox & Friends Weekend," and ex-television doctor and unsuccessful Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz.
Trump's first campaign in 2016 was rocked by allegations about his conduct on "The Apprentice" and other appearances during his association with NBC, notably in footage in which he said he could sexually assault women and get away with it because he was a "star."
Almost a decade after he left his reality TV role, Trump's television career remains central to his biography and political rise. The show presented Trump Tower to tens of millions of people as a symbol of power and success before Trump launched his first... Read More
