The Joe Lewis Company recently helped Universal Pictures celebrate The Mummy Day in a very big way. The event production company designed, built and installed a seven-ton, 84-foot tall sarcophagus at the Hollywood and Highland Gateway in Los Angeles. The structure was unveiled at the premiere of the studio’s summer blockbuster The Mummy in an event attended by the film’s star, Tom Cruise, director Alex Kurtzman, co-stars Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella and Jake Johnson, and hundreds of movie fans. The sarcophagus was the largest-ever structure erected at the Hollywood site.
Producing large-scale, one-of-a-kind activations and events is The Joe Lewis Company’s stock in trade. The company has provided event production services for virtually every major awards show, motion picture studio, television network and professional sports organization in the United States including the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Game, the Special Olympics, the Grammy Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, the CMT Music Awards, the BET Awards, AEG and Madison Square Garden. “We’ve been fortunate to participate in a lot of events that are big, memorable and have never been done before,” says company founder Joe Lewis. “We do exciting stuff really well.”
Already the industry leader in the awards show and sports arenas, JLC is expanding into new realms. The company recently hired Adam Atkins to head a new experiential division focused on consumer facing branded events and strategic experiences. Also joining the company is Mary Pat Kasravi who will lead a team centering on premieres, parties and press events.
For many companies, spending on experiential and branded events now exceeds spending on traditional advertising, notes Lewis. “Adam and Mary Pat bring tons of experience and strong relationships in those markets,” he says. “They will help us grow our presence and work with clients to produce memorable events that are successful and unique.”
Atkins brings more than 15 years of expertise in branded experiences, most recently as Vice President/Group Director at experiential marketing agency Ignition. His many accomplishments include overseeing Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the Olympic Torch Relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Kasravi’s background includes 21 years at Entertainment Lighting Services (ELS) where she produced scores of movie and television premieres, including recent events for Game of Thrones and Fifty Shades Darker. Also joining JLC as part of Kasravi’s team are account executive Grace Cornejo and technical director Kevin McKinney.
JLC is unique among event management companies in its ability to deliver integrated creative, production and management services. It operates out of more than 50,000 square feet of production facilities in Gardena, California. Where other event specialists rely on subcontractors, JLC offers a seamless, all-inclusive solution. Its creative team is led by Creative Director Ed Coco and it has a dedicated staff of designers, draftsmen and producers, as well as a full-service graphics print department, scene shop and full rentals division.
The result, says Lewis, is greater efficiency, qualitative and creative consistency, and a buck-stops-here mentality. “We’re a group of very skilled and passionate people; if you don’t love your work, you don’t last with us,” he explains. “We work in all spaces—sports, broadcast, corporate—at a very high level. People rely on us because we know what it takes to get the job done.”
For The Mummy premiere, JLC’s team of designers and fabricators constructed the giant sarcophagus at its Gardena facility in the space of just a few weeks. Three separate independent engineering firms vetted the finished piece for structural integrity. It then took some 18 tractor trailers to haul the components to the Hollywood site and over 300 hours to set it up in place.
Erecting a structure as tall as a three-story building in the middle of a Hollywood on virtually a moment’s notice might seem like a tall order, but it’s business as usual for JLC. “We had a very tight timeline to get it designed, built, approved by the engineers and the city, and erected in place—but we never cut corners,” says company founder Joe Lewis. “For us, the exciting part is that we were able to deliver what we promised. The marketing team at Universal Pictures challenged us, and we exceeded their expectations.”
About The Joe Lewis Company
The Joe Lewis Company is a comprehensive event production, design, build and execution company dedicated to creating unforgettable live event experiences that bring audiences together and brands to life. The company provides full-service production, design, build and execution for face-to-face events in the live, branded, media, sports, social and broadcast industries. Its clients include Oscars, Grammys, the NBA, BET Networks, Billboard Music Awards, Comcast, ESPN, MTV, NBC, CBS, ABC, Turner, TNT, the WB, Universal Pictures, Red Bull and VH1. http://www.joelewiscompany.com
