The WGA East’s second Showrunner Academy gets underway today, with the 31-member class taking part in a program designed to support television writer-producers, upper-level writers and new show creators in honing the skills necessary to become successful showrunners and TV industry leaders.
The Academy, which provides instruction from current showrunners and other industry professionals on a wide range of topics, is led by Diana Son and Frank Pugliese.
“Being a showrunner is so much more than being the creative voice of the show,” Son said in a statement. “It’s also managing a multimillion-dollar endeavor with over 100 employees. We’re bringing in accomplished and experienced showrunners who’re willing to share the breadth of their experience – the good, bad and the ugly – so new showrunners can have a head start on figuring out what kind of showrunner they’re going to be.
The Academy, which provides instruction from current showrunners and other industry professionals on a wide range of topics, is led by Diana Son and Frank Pugliese.
“Being a showrunner is so much more than being the creative voice of the show,” Son said in a statement. “It’s also managing a multimillion-dollar endeavor with over 100 employees. We’re bringing in accomplished and experienced showrunners who’re willing to share the breadth of their experience – the good, bad and the ugly – so new showrunners can have a head start on figuring out what kind of showrunner they’re going to be.
- 9/14/2022
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
The 23rd Nantucket Film Festival will open June 20 with Sony Pictures Classics’ Boundaries, which is written and directed by Shana Feste and stars Christopher Plummer and Vera Farmiga in the lead father-daughter roles. Bobby Cannavale, Peter Fonda, Christopher Lloyd and Kristen Schaal also star.
Organizers said the festival will close June 25 with Love, Gilda, the CNN Films documentary about Gilda Radner that just had its world premiere last week at the Tribeca Film Festival. The centerpiece presentation will be Morgan Neville’s Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor.
For a ninth straight year, Nff will also screen a Pixar film on opening day. This year’s is Incredibles 2, which opens commercially June 15. Also continuing a tradition, the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will accompany a screening of Universal’s 1928 film The Man Who Laughs. One of its notable features is Conrad Veidt’s character, which has been...
Organizers said the festival will close June 25 with Love, Gilda, the CNN Films documentary about Gilda Radner that just had its world premiere last week at the Tribeca Film Festival. The centerpiece presentation will be Morgan Neville’s Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor.
For a ninth straight year, Nff will also screen a Pixar film on opening day. This year’s is Incredibles 2, which opens commercially June 15. Also continuing a tradition, the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will accompany a screening of Universal’s 1928 film The Man Who Laughs. One of its notable features is Conrad Veidt’s character, which has been...
- 4/24/2018
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
For two years back in the late ’90s and early aughts, producer, filmmaker, author and cinephile John Pierson hammered together the lovingly Diy television series, which introduced movie buffs to all manner of filmmakers and their creations over the course of 60-plus episodes. “Split Screen” was IFCtv’s signature series from 1997-2001, boasting such guests as Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Mary Harron, Katherine Dieckmann and many, many more.
Late last year, the cult classic found a new home over on streaming service FilmStruck, which began releasing episodes of the series on their Criterion Channel in December, with a tiered rollout planned.
Read More: ‘Split Screen’: 9 Reasons You Should Watch FilmStruck’s Revival of TV’s Best-Ever Series About Indie Film
On Wednesday night in New York City, the series’ reintroduction to the cultural consciousness continued apace, as Pierson and a group of some of his most famous...
Late last year, the cult classic found a new home over on streaming service FilmStruck, which began releasing episodes of the series on their Criterion Channel in December, with a tiered rollout planned.
Read More: ‘Split Screen’: 9 Reasons You Should Watch FilmStruck’s Revival of TV’s Best-Ever Series About Indie Film
On Wednesday night in New York City, the series’ reintroduction to the cultural consciousness continued apace, as Pierson and a group of some of his most famous...
- 5/11/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Amazon has put in development Late Bloomers, a half-hour comedy series from Ben Stiller & Nicky Weinstock’s Red Hour, Deb Spera and Maria Grasso’s One-Two Punch Productions, Survivor’ Remorse executive producer Victor Levin and ITV Studios. Created and written by Donal Lardner Ward (How to Make It in America), Late Bloomers follows a fortysomething couple that's randomly selected for a human trial of an experimental drug therapy that halts aging. In a culture obsessed…...
- 2/17/2017
- Deadline TV
Most American automobile commuters spend 55 working days in traffic every year, 3 hours per day, and 25% of their income on transportation costs, while 50% of their car trips are less than 3 miles long.
Fredrik Gertten's “Bikes vs Cars” is a terrific documentary which demonstrates just how draining and straining automobile traffic is in heavily populated cities like Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, Brazil, and just how easy and well accepted commuting by bicycle is in bike captial cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark, there are 1000 kilometers of bike lanes and 4 out of 5 people own a bike. 40% of the entire city commutes on bicycles, while in Los Angeles, California, only 0.8% commute by bike.
How many people dislike driving, traffic jams, the cost of parking, gas, tolls, registration, insurance, and maintenance, yet have no other public transportation options?
Why and when were these options eliminated and by who? Why were they in favor of constructing freeways? What percentage of Los Angeles is currently dedicated to roads and parking?
Bicyclist advocates, Raquel Rolnik, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism Department, Don Ward, organizer of L.A.’s ‘Wolfpack Hustle,’ the underground bicycling club known for their midnight rides, and Dan Koeppel, who founded and organized ‘The Big Parade,’ a two-day community walking event in Los Angeles, discuss urban sprawl, bicycle activism, and ways to improve the environment.
“They keep building the freeways wider and wider, 6-12 lanes wide, thinking that the traffic will improve, but it only keeps getting worse and worse.”
Are cars still a status symbol? What does your car say about you? Are you single? married? Wealthy? How much does the automobile industry spend on advertising? How many electric cars have they sold? What percentage of cars will be sold to the millennial generation over the next 5-6 years, and what type of cars will they be interested in? How many cars are there are on the planet, and how many will there be in the year 2020? Which automobiles emit the most Carbon Dioxide, and which are the most efficient? Why is it so difficult to change urban planning to be more bike and eco-friendly? What was the Carmageddon weekend really like for bike riders, the air quality and pollution? and What’s really in the bike vs car dilemma for the politicians and oil companies?
If you reduce the number of cars by making it more expensive for them, reduce the amount of lanes, reduce the parking, increase the prices, add toll roads, and pressure politicians, will the traffic congestion get better or worse?
“Bikes vs Cars” will answer all of these questions.
Fredrik Gertten's “Bikes vs Cars” is a terrific documentary which demonstrates just how draining and straining automobile traffic is in heavily populated cities like Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, Brazil, and just how easy and well accepted commuting by bicycle is in bike captial cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark, there are 1000 kilometers of bike lanes and 4 out of 5 people own a bike. 40% of the entire city commutes on bicycles, while in Los Angeles, California, only 0.8% commute by bike.
How many people dislike driving, traffic jams, the cost of parking, gas, tolls, registration, insurance, and maintenance, yet have no other public transportation options?
Why and when were these options eliminated and by who? Why were they in favor of constructing freeways? What percentage of Los Angeles is currently dedicated to roads and parking?
Bicyclist advocates, Raquel Rolnik, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism Department, Don Ward, organizer of L.A.’s ‘Wolfpack Hustle,’ the underground bicycling club known for their midnight rides, and Dan Koeppel, who founded and organized ‘The Big Parade,’ a two-day community walking event in Los Angeles, discuss urban sprawl, bicycle activism, and ways to improve the environment.
“They keep building the freeways wider and wider, 6-12 lanes wide, thinking that the traffic will improve, but it only keeps getting worse and worse.”
Are cars still a status symbol? What does your car say about you? Are you single? married? Wealthy? How much does the automobile industry spend on advertising? How many electric cars have they sold? What percentage of cars will be sold to the millennial generation over the next 5-6 years, and what type of cars will they be interested in? How many cars are there are on the planet, and how many will there be in the year 2020? Which automobiles emit the most Carbon Dioxide, and which are the most efficient? Why is it so difficult to change urban planning to be more bike and eco-friendly? What was the Carmageddon weekend really like for bike riders, the air quality and pollution? and What’s really in the bike vs car dilemma for the politicians and oil companies?
If you reduce the number of cars by making it more expensive for them, reduce the amount of lanes, reduce the parking, increase the prices, add toll roads, and pressure politicians, will the traffic congestion get better or worse?
“Bikes vs Cars” will answer all of these questions.
- 3/24/2015
- by Sharon Abella
- Sydney's Buzz
Can the raucous experience of a live comedy club survive when it's shown at the cinema? Brian Logan investigates a new experiment
Friday night at Cineworld Wandsworth, south London, and people are filing in to see the nail-biting psych-thriller Trance and the carnival of pulchritudinous teen flesh that is Spring Breakers.
Not me. Oh no. I'm here to watch a film about other people watching middle-aged men tell jokes about how daft they look wearing Crocs.
Put like that, Comedy Store: Raw & Uncut sounds like a galaxy far, far away from anything you'd normally see at the movies – and not especially alluring. But that's what they said before Met Live, National Theatre Live and their numerous imitators trounced the doubters and proved that broadcasting theatre and opera to multiplexes worldwide was not only big business, it could also change the way we experience live performance.
Now the Comedy Store, Britain's best-known comedy venue,...
Friday night at Cineworld Wandsworth, south London, and people are filing in to see the nail-biting psych-thriller Trance and the carnival of pulchritudinous teen flesh that is Spring Breakers.
Not me. Oh no. I'm here to watch a film about other people watching middle-aged men tell jokes about how daft they look wearing Crocs.
Put like that, Comedy Store: Raw & Uncut sounds like a galaxy far, far away from anything you'd normally see at the movies – and not especially alluring. But that's what they said before Met Live, National Theatre Live and their numerous imitators trounced the doubters and proved that broadcasting theatre and opera to multiplexes worldwide was not only big business, it could also change the way we experience live performance.
Now the Comedy Store, Britain's best-known comedy venue,...
- 4/16/2013
- by Brian Logan
- The Guardian - Film News
Jobs go as as contemporary work wrapped into main Royal Opera House programming and Manchester comedy festival closes
House foreclosure
It was revealed that the curtain is coming down on ROH2 in London, responsible for the Royal Opera House's contemporary opera and dance programme for the past decade. Instead, Covent Garden says that its more modern work will be incorporated into the mainstream programming of the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet. The Roh insists that the changes – which include two redundancies – are not a result of a 15% arts council funding cut implemented earlier this year.
That joke isn't funny any more
Manchester comedy festival, on the other hand, has certainly suffered at the hand of government cuts. The event has been scrapped this year after losing financial support from its city council. The festival was set up 10 years ago by Comedy Store founder Don Ward, who said: "With a clean sweep,...
House foreclosure
It was revealed that the curtain is coming down on ROH2 in London, responsible for the Royal Opera House's contemporary opera and dance programme for the past decade. Instead, Covent Garden says that its more modern work will be incorporated into the mainstream programming of the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet. The Roh insists that the changes – which include two redundancies – are not a result of a 15% arts council funding cut implemented earlier this year.
That joke isn't funny any more
Manchester comedy festival, on the other hand, has certainly suffered at the hand of government cuts. The event has been scrapped this year after losing financial support from its city council. The festival was set up 10 years ago by Comedy Store founder Don Ward, who said: "With a clean sweep,...
- 8/20/2012
- by Alistair Smith
- The Guardian - Film News
New Delhi, June 23 – The Comedy Store, a live stand-up comedy theatre originally launched in London, now has its branch in India’s entertainment capital, courtesy co-founder Don Ward and stand-up comedian-actor Vir Das.
The first show Wednesday was at the 300-seater theatre in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall.
‘Don Ward has collaborated with my production company Wierdass Productions to launch this experience. We will hold experimental evenings around comedy where unpredictable acts of comedy will take place to enthrall the audience,’.
The first show Wednesday was at the 300-seater theatre in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall.
‘Don Ward has collaborated with my production company Wierdass Productions to launch this experience. We will hold experimental evenings around comedy where unpredictable acts of comedy will take place to enthrall the audience,’.
- 6/23/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
Hollywood couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are at the center of a pregnancy riddle after the former Dawson's Creek beauty was spotted at a pre-natal yoga class. The Australian heart-throb, 25, and American actress, 24, started dating last June after meeting on the set of Ang Lee's cowboy film Brokeback Mountain. Williams has been staying in Ledger's beachside Sydney home since December as The Patriot star films Australian drama Candy alongside Geoffrey Rush in the area. Local Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports Williams has been a regular visitor to a weeknight yoga class, which tutors pregnant women in their second and third trimesters. The paper also claims Williams has been spotted in loose-fitting clothes whenever she is spotted in public. Ledger has previously romanced Heather Graham and Naomi Watts, while Williams has dated scriptwriter Donal Ward and musician Andy Herod.
- 4/4/2005
- WENN
Subtitled "A Rock 'n' Roll Fable", this satire is the latest example of an increasingly overfamiliar genre, the rock band reunion movie.
From "Spinal Tap" to "Still Crazy" to the recent "Sugar Town", filmmakers are exploiting the comic or poignant ramifications that occur when a band long past its prime tries to recapture its former glory.
"The Suburbans", directed, starring and co-written by Donal Lardner Ward, is a particularly frivolous take on the subject. It's receiving a limited theatrical release in preparation for a quick transfer to video stores.
The Suburbans were a big-haired '80s band who managed to land one big pop hit before self-destructing. Eighteen years later, they have settled into suburban lives of quiet desperation. Danny (Ward) is attempting without success to open a nightclub; Rory (Tony Guma) is an insurance salesman with a pregnant girlfriend (Bridgette Wilson); Mitch (Craig Bierko) is a podiatrist still trying to live down a notorious assignation with a transsexual; and Gil (Will Ferrell) is about to be married, although he's much more interested in waxing his car.
When the group reluctantly and awkwardly performs their old hit at Gil's wedding, it attracts the attention of Cate Jennifer Love Hewitt), a record executive who decides that the group should re-form to cash in on the 1980s music nostalgia bandwagon. She ensconces them in a suburban house where they can practice in the garage, and makes plans for a big pay-per-view special. Needless to say, things go awry.
The screenplay by Ward and Tony Guma has its sweet and mildly comedic moments, but the characterizations are paper thin and the story never really gathers any satirical steam. There's the occasionally funny scene, such as when the group meets with a bizarre pair of record executives, hilariously played by Jerry and Ben Stiller. But the humor is of the distinctly mild variety, and the film gets bogged down in such less-than-scintillating plot developments as the ticking biological clock of Danny's girlfriend Grace (Amy Brenneman) and her increasing jealousy of the skimpily clad Cate. Such stylistic devices as having a bevy of screaming teenage girls holding up signs announcing scene changes wear thin quickly.
The film does manage to score some comic riffs off the current music climate; the scene where the group ineffectually tries to make a video with a hot Icelandic director (photographer David LaChapelle) is a hoot. The cameo appearances by such figures as Dick Clark and Kurt Loder add authenticity, and the band A Flock of Seagulls demonstrates through their brief appearance that they have a sense of humor about themselves.
Performances are mostly unexceptional, although Will Ferrell has some slyly funny moments as the befuddled bassist and Brenneman is charming as the frustrated Grace. Love Hewitt manages to look absolutely adorable at all times, even when forced to wear a steady succession of unflattering hairdos, the worst of which makes her look like Minnie Mouse.
THE SUBURBANS
Sony Pictures Entertainment
TriStar Pictures
Director:Donal Lardner Ward
Screenplay:Donal Lardner Ward, Tony Guma
Producers:Michael Burns, Brad Krevoy, J.J. Abrams, Leanna Creel
Executive Producers:Marc Butan, Tim Foster, George Linardos
Director of Photography:Michael Barrett
Editor:Kathryn Himoff
Production Designer:Susan Bolles
Music:Robbie Konder
Color/stereo
Cast:
Grace:Amy Brenneman
Danny:Donal Lardner Ward
Rory:Tony Guma
Mitch:Craig Bierko
Gil:Will Ferrell
Cate:Jennifer Love Hewitt
Lara:Bridgette Wilson
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
From "Spinal Tap" to "Still Crazy" to the recent "Sugar Town", filmmakers are exploiting the comic or poignant ramifications that occur when a band long past its prime tries to recapture its former glory.
"The Suburbans", directed, starring and co-written by Donal Lardner Ward, is a particularly frivolous take on the subject. It's receiving a limited theatrical release in preparation for a quick transfer to video stores.
The Suburbans were a big-haired '80s band who managed to land one big pop hit before self-destructing. Eighteen years later, they have settled into suburban lives of quiet desperation. Danny (Ward) is attempting without success to open a nightclub; Rory (Tony Guma) is an insurance salesman with a pregnant girlfriend (Bridgette Wilson); Mitch (Craig Bierko) is a podiatrist still trying to live down a notorious assignation with a transsexual; and Gil (Will Ferrell) is about to be married, although he's much more interested in waxing his car.
When the group reluctantly and awkwardly performs their old hit at Gil's wedding, it attracts the attention of Cate Jennifer Love Hewitt), a record executive who decides that the group should re-form to cash in on the 1980s music nostalgia bandwagon. She ensconces them in a suburban house where they can practice in the garage, and makes plans for a big pay-per-view special. Needless to say, things go awry.
The screenplay by Ward and Tony Guma has its sweet and mildly comedic moments, but the characterizations are paper thin and the story never really gathers any satirical steam. There's the occasionally funny scene, such as when the group meets with a bizarre pair of record executives, hilariously played by Jerry and Ben Stiller. But the humor is of the distinctly mild variety, and the film gets bogged down in such less-than-scintillating plot developments as the ticking biological clock of Danny's girlfriend Grace (Amy Brenneman) and her increasing jealousy of the skimpily clad Cate. Such stylistic devices as having a bevy of screaming teenage girls holding up signs announcing scene changes wear thin quickly.
The film does manage to score some comic riffs off the current music climate; the scene where the group ineffectually tries to make a video with a hot Icelandic director (photographer David LaChapelle) is a hoot. The cameo appearances by such figures as Dick Clark and Kurt Loder add authenticity, and the band A Flock of Seagulls demonstrates through their brief appearance that they have a sense of humor about themselves.
Performances are mostly unexceptional, although Will Ferrell has some slyly funny moments as the befuddled bassist and Brenneman is charming as the frustrated Grace. Love Hewitt manages to look absolutely adorable at all times, even when forced to wear a steady succession of unflattering hairdos, the worst of which makes her look like Minnie Mouse.
THE SUBURBANS
Sony Pictures Entertainment
TriStar Pictures
Director:Donal Lardner Ward
Screenplay:Donal Lardner Ward, Tony Guma
Producers:Michael Burns, Brad Krevoy, J.J. Abrams, Leanna Creel
Executive Producers:Marc Butan, Tim Foster, George Linardos
Director of Photography:Michael Barrett
Editor:Kathryn Himoff
Production Designer:Susan Bolles
Music:Robbie Konder
Color/stereo
Cast:
Grace:Amy Brenneman
Danny:Donal Lardner Ward
Rory:Tony Guma
Mitch:Craig Bierko
Gil:Will Ferrell
Cate:Jennifer Love Hewitt
Lara:Bridgette Wilson
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/29/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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