News

Jason Michael Berman '06 will produce the Andrew Renzi-penned script Franny with Treehouse Pictures.

Iram Bilal '07 has been selected for Film Independent's 14th annual Screenwriting lab for her project Forbidden Steps.

Paul Boardman '93 and Scott Derrickson '95 wrote Devil's Knot, which explores the brutal 1993 Arkansas murders of three 8-year-old boys and the three teenagers accused. The film is slated for a 2014 release by Image Entertainment. Boardman is also co-producing.

Bryan Burk '91 will executive produce the Marc Silverstein '96 and Abby Kohn '96 comedy pilot Main Street for ABC, along with J.J. Abrams. Kathy Lingg and Athena Wickham '02 will co-produce. Also with J.J. Abrams, Burk will be executive producing Westworld for HBO.

Sheldon Candis '02 has directed the short film "Crooked Smile" by Grammy nominated artist, J. Cole, featuring TLC, and produced by Jay Z and RocNation.

Stephen Chbosky '92 will produce the Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter screenplay, While We're Young. Based on the Adena Halpern novel, 29, While We're Young centers on a 75-year-old woman who gets to be 29 again for one more day.

Hench-Dada MFA alum Justin Connolly's thesis film, Dance For Your Life, Puny Human, was accepted to the Northwest Animation Festival in Portland.

Jarrett Conaway '09, along with Tim Kring '88, will executive produce the Zach Craley-penned Exp, a teen drama about high schoolers with superpowers for The CW.

Bard Dorros '99 is the producer of the HBO series True Detectives, about two detectives who collide and collaborate over the 17-year hunt for a Louisiana serial killer.

Gary Fleder '93 will executive produce Star-Crossed for The CW, along with Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. The drama follows the epic romance between a human girl and an alien boy after he's released from the internment camp that captured him shortly after his arrival on Earth.

The Skin I'm In, written and directed by Broderick Fox '99, will be available for international digital re lease on iTunes and Amazon. The documentary explores the aftermath of a harrowing 2005 incident where Fox was found by strangers on the Berlin subway tracks with his head split open and a lethal 0.47 blood alcohol level.

Ian Fried '08 has sold the sci-fi script Prism to Paramount's Insurge Pictures. Will Rowbotham will be co-executive producing with Caliber Media.

Mark Friedman will executive produce Believe with Bryan Burk '91 for NBC, a drama about a 10-year-old girl with telekinesis.

Gavin Garrison '12 was a producer for the Discovery Network's series, "Whale Wars." He is also developing a new series on whaling in Antarctica for Animal Planet.

Josh Greenbaum directed the documentary The Short Game, which follows the greatest child golfers in the world. Produced by Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, it premiered at SXSW and won the Audience Award.

Brian Grazer is an executive producer for Fox's Gang Related, a gritty action drama about a gang-banger-turned-detective who teams up with a longtime Task Force leader to track down his best friend's killer. Brian is also Executive Producing the television series Those Who Kill for A&E, about a police detective and forensic profiler who deeply understand the killers they hunt.

Aaron Kaplan is an executive producer for Instant Mom, which was Nick at Nite's highest-rated premiere ever in total viewers. He is executive producing the Donick Cary pilot Strange Calls for ABC; the comedy pilot Last Night for FOX. He is also executive producing an untitled comedy pilot written by Liz Vassey; The Mysteries Of Laura, written by Jeff Rake; an untitled workplace comedy pilot penned by Justin Spitzer; an untitled family comedy from Aseem Batra; a half-hour comedy written by Neil LaBute; and Harmony House, all for NBC. Kaplan's production company, Kapital Entertainment, has also closed a two-year deal with Venezuelan cable network Radio Caracas Television, allowing them access to RCTV's entire library of telenovelas. In addition, Kaplan is partnering with Warner Bros. to develop and executive produce the Sharon Horgan comedy Dead Boss, for FOX; and with Michael Alaimo to develop Alaimo's drama pilot, Spec for NBC. Kaplan also developed an idea for an untitled comedy pilot written by Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan that sold to CBS. Kaplan will also executive produce the Laura Gutin-penned comedy Olivia Jones Is My Girlfriend for NBC and an untitled ABC project written by Laura Solon.

Zack Keller '07 is the creator and writer of Dick Figures, the highest viewed animated web series on YouTube with over 310 million views. He raised $313,000 on Kickstarter to fund Dick Figures: The Movie, which was released in September 2013. He is also the founder of the animation company, Remochoso.

Kyle Killen '97 is the head writer and executive producer for Mind Games, an ABC drama following two unhinged brothers who head an agency using manipulation and science to solve their clients' problems.

Theresa Lo '09 wrote the novel, Hell's Game. It is one of the Top 20 bestselling young adult horror novels on Amazon.com.

Michael Mayer '99 directed the award-winning Israeli drama, Out in the Dark.

Steve Michaels '93 will serve as an executive producer for the REELZ reality show, Beverly Hills Pawn; FOX crime drama Whitey Bulger; and the ESPN documentary, 30 For 30 - Tonya & Nancy. He is currently the President and CEO of the Emmy Award-winning production company, Asylum Entertainment.

Jeffrey Nachmanoff '94 will write and executive produce Legends, a FOX thriller about an undercover CIA-operative who can transform himself for each assignment.

Mark Ordesky '85 is an executive producer for ABC's The Quest, a fantasy-meets-adventure reality show that takes 12 contestants on an epic journey through the magical realm of "Everrealm" where one will emerge a real-life hero.

Shonda Rhimes '94 has signed a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster to write her first memoir.

Gabe Sachs '84 will executive produce The Night Shift for NBC, a fast-paced drama about a group of doctors working the night shift at a San Antonio hospital.

Ian Sander is an executive producer for Reckless, a legal drama in development for CBS in which rival attorneys must set aside their mutual attraction to deal with a city at the brink from a police sex scandal.

Andrew Sandler '10 has signed to Riveting Entertainment and is repped by Tommy Labuda for music videos and commercials. He has also directed Nothing To Lose: The Documentary based on the bestselling book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain by Ryan Blair.

Through his production company, Fake Empire, Josh Schwartz '98 has sold the Janine Sherman Barrois-penned crime drama pilot, Jigsaw, to CBS.

Tom Shelly '87 is an executive producer for American Dream Builders, an NBC competition reality show which sets top designers and architects head-to-head as they take on extreme home renovations.

Lindsey Shockley '07 is an executive story editor for HBO's Hello Ladies and ABC's Trophy Wife.

Miles Swarthout '73 has written an Afterword to his late father Glendon Swarthout's prizewinning novel, The Homesman, which Simon & Schuster will be reprinting in trade paperback in February 2014. The film version of The Homesman will world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2014, and is directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who stars along with Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, James Spader, William Fichtner, Miranda Otto, and Hailee Steinfeld. Miles worked on the screenplay for this period Western.

Adam Sztykiel '00 has written and executed produced Undateable for NBC, a comedy series about a self-proclaimed dating expert who sets out to teach his group of romantically challenged friends the "do's" and "don'ts" of dating.

David E. Tolchinsky '88 has been included on New City Film's Film 50: Chicago's Screen Gems 2013 list for his work in the industry. He is currently Chair of the Radio/TV/Film Department at Northwestern University.

Jon Turteltaub is producing the drama, Alleged, for CBS through his company, Junction Entertainment. Written by David Rambo and Pat Gilfillan, it follows a defense attorney who has to defend his brother against allegations that he murdered his own wife.

Films In Release

Baggage Claim
Paula Patton, Actor

Black Nativity
Forest Whitaker, Actor
Terilyn Shropshire '85, Editor

Ender's Game
Lynn Hendee '81, Producer
Josh Comen '95, VFX Producer
Tim Carras '03, VFX Supervisor

Last Vegas
Jon Turteltaub, Director

Insidious, Chapter 2
Joe Dzuban '04, Supervising Sound Editor

Runner Runner
Stacey Sher '85, Producer

Rush
Ron Howard, Producer-Director
Brian Grazer '74, Producer

Thor: The Dark World
Kevin Feige '95, Producer
Robert Rodat '83, Story

TV Shows

Almost Human
Bryan Burk '91, Executive Producer
Athena Wickham '02, Producer

Betas
Michael Lehmann '85, Writer/Director

The Blacklist
Jon Bokenkamp '95, Executive Producer

Hostages
Jeffrey Nachmanoff '94, Writer/Executive Producer

Mighty Med
Jim Bernstein '91, Executive Producer