News
Screenwriting duo Scott Alexander ’85 and Larry Karaszewski ’85 will receive 2015 Hall of Fame honors at the annual Final Draft Awards.
Judd Apatow will produce an untitled ensemble comedy starring Laura Dern about the world of obsessive female football fans.
John August ’94 will adapt the iconic Alvin Schwartz book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark for CBS Films.
John Axelrad ’90 edited The Immigrant, a romantic drama set in 1920’s New York City. Axelrad also edited Before We Go, a feature by TWC-Radius, and Miles Ahead, a feature directed by and starring Don Cheadle as Miles Davis, both to be released in 2015.
Einar Baldvin’s ’14 thesis film The Pride of Strathmoor premiered at the 41st Telluride Film Festival and is an official selection for the Kurtzfilmtage Winterhur 2014, the BendFilm Festival, and the Anim’est International Animation Festival 2014.
Frank Balkin ’90 has joined the Worldwide Production Agency as Partner and Head of Television.
Jason Michael Berman ’06 and David Goyer ’88 will produce The Birth of a Nation, a biopic about the African American slave-turned-revolutionary, Nat Turner.
Sheldon Candis ’02 directed a digital series for Under Armour entitled I Will What I Want, about ballet phenom Misty Copeland.
Julian Cautherley ’00 produced The Crash Reel, which won an Emmy for outstanding informational programming – long form at the Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
Stephen Chbosky ’92 will direct and Stacy Sher ’85 will produce an adaptation of the forthcoming book Santa Claus Is For Real: A True Christmas Fable about the Magic of Believing. Larry Stuckey ’93 will write the adaptation.
Jon M. Chu ’03 and Hieu Ho ’07 have sold Can’t Touch This, a high school dance comedy set in the 1990s, to Focus Features.
Henry Crum ’04 wrote 3 Faces of Hunger & Thirst, which won Best Feature Screenplay at the 2014 Slamdance Screenplay Competition.
R.J. Cutler will executive produce an untitled police drama at CBS about an African American homicide detective who is promoted to lead a high profile, racially-charged murder investigation.
Joshua Donen ’79, along with director David Fincher and writer James Ellroy, will executive produce an HBO noir drama series inspired by the life of Fred Otash, the legendary 1950’s vice cop-turned-private eye.
Geofrey Hildrew ’03 has been admitted into the ACE (American Cinema Editors). The first feature film he edited, Careful What You Wish For, directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum ’99, will be released this fall.
Dave Eisenstark ’78 wrote two novels, The Video Killer and Bleeding Kansas, both of which are available for purchase on Amazon.
Gregory Ekmekjian ’00 directed and shot the short films Adult Behavior and Two Roads, both of which are broadcasting on DirecTV and AT&T Uverse.
Ingrid Escajeda ’02 has made her first network sale to CBS with an untitled drama pilot set in a suburban Texas county on the verge of chaos during the rise of a young female prosecutor to the rank of district attorney.
Paul Feig ’84 will direct and co-write a Ghostbusters reboot for a female-centered cast.
Michael Fimognari ’01 shot Lazarus, starring Olivia Wilde, which will be released through Lionsgate in January 2015.
Gary Fleder ’93 will direct the pilot of Evil Men, a supernatural drama for USA Network.
Ian Fried ’08 sold Pentacle, a thriller set in the world of magic, to Lionsgate and Vertigo Entertainment.
Antonio Gonzalez ’07 published a novel titled The Odd Fellows under the pseudonym, Guillermo Luna.
Al Gough ’94 and Miles Millar ’94 are executive producers and showrunners for Badlands, a martial arts project for AMC.
David S. Goyer ’88 will executive produce Krypton, now in development at Syfy, a series following Superman’s grandfather as he brings hope and equality to his home planet. Goyer will also co-write and produce for NBC an adaptation of the 1980 fantasy novel Shadowland by Peter Straub.
Bradley Gray ’99 and So Yong Kim wrote Lovesong, a road movie which will star Jena Malone and Riley Keough as best friends who develop a romance while taking an impromptu road trip.
Gordon Gray ’86 will executive produce an untitled semi-autobiographical comedy for NBC about a man who discovers his parents have secretly sustained a three-year relationship with his ex-girlfriend.
Robert Greenblatt ’87 has been named head of NBC Universal’s live stage division. This follows his win of the Chairman’s Award at the GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) Awards.
Luke Greenfield ’94 will develop, produce, and direct Slingshot, an original science fiction feature he conceived with partner Trevor Sands.
Evan Hayes ’02 has been named President of Production at Parkes/MacDonald.
Dan Hertzog ’91 shot the short film Earthbound in Indonesia.
Zuxin Houwon Best Documentary Short for her film My Dad’s A Rocker at the 30th annual Warsaw Film Festival.
Miguel Jiron’s ’13 thesis film LA-GAR-TO has been selected for the Sommets du Cinema d’animation Festival and the Klik! Amsterdam Animation Festival.
Diane Lisa Johnson ’05 won the Empire Award at the New York Screenplay Contest for her sitcom pilot Living With Linda.
Aaron Kaplan ’90 of Kapital Entertainment will executive produce a single camera NBA buddy comedy for ABC, which has made a put pilot commitment to the project. Kaplan is also expected to produce a single-camera half-hour comedy titled Divorce starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment teamed up with 20th Century Fox TV on a single-camera adaptation of the comic strip Jump Start. Kaplan acquired the rights to the 2014 best-seller Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann. Kaplan and Tracy Katsky plan to adapt the book as a cable drama series. Writer Gregg Mettler and executive producer Kaplan have sold a single-camera comedy project featuring puppets to ABC. CBS is also developing a buddy comedy written by Dan Kopelman which Kaplan will executive produce.
Evan Katz ’86 will supervise the writing of the Fox drama pilot POTUS about a U.S. president corrupted by power.
Amy Lee Ketchum ’13 won Second Prize in Animation at the Highway 61 Film Festival and received Audience Choice in Animation at the Moonrise Film Festival.
Kyle Killen ’97 and Don Todd will executive produce the detective series Nola Hart for ABC. Killen has also inked a two-year first-look deal with Paramount Television.
Abby Kohn ’96 and Marc Silverstein ’96 wrote the NBC pilot Bewitched, a reimagining of the original series set two decades later.
Matt Kunitz ’90 has signed a multi-year overall TV deal with Lionsgate TV where he will develop and produce unscripted programming under his banner, Pulse Creative.
Shawn Levy ’94 will direct an untitled Tinker Bell comedy-adventure starring Melissa McCarthy. Levy is also in talks to direct an adaptation of the videogame Minecraft for Warner Brothers. Fox preemptively purchased a spec script titled Low Tide which Levy will produce. It centers on a policewoman and a serial killer in a small beach town.
Liz Manashil ’10 directed her debut feature film Bread and Butter, which was nominated for an Audience Award, Best Female Filmmaker Award, and Ultra Indie Award at the 2014 Woodstock Film Festival.
Andrew Millstein was named president of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Neal Moritz ’85 and Ori Marmur ’93 of Original Film will produce Passengers, a science fiction love story, for Sony Pictures. They will also produce a drama from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg titled Preacher, the pilot for which was recently ordered by AMC. Moritz will executive produce Wife of Crime for CBS.
Aisha Muharrar wrote and—along with Amy Poehler—will executive produce for NBC an untitled single-camera workplace comedy about a young agnostic woman who inherits a church.
Hiro Murai ’06 won Best Director at the UK Music Video Awards.
Don Murphy ’88 will executive produce From Hell, an FX drama series about Jack the Ripper based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
Mika Pryce ’10 has been tapped as creative executive at Red Granite Pictures.
Jason Reitman ’99 will executive produce Casual, a single-camera half-hour comedy series about a dysfunctional family. Hulu has made a 10-episode straight-to-series order, and Lionsgate will produce.
Shonda Rhimes ’94 will executive produce The Long Game, a drama about a female forensic accountant, which has been set up at ABC. Rhimes will also executive produce an untitled relationship comedy series for ABC about a newly engaged couple and their eclectic family and friends.
Billy Rosenberg ’00 has been named Head of Development and Production at Party Over Here, The Lonely Island’s new alternative comedy development venture.
Melissa Rosenberg ’90 has set up two projects through her ABC Studios-based Tall Girls Prods: a half-hour comedy for ABC (The Mighty Camilla) and drama The Zone for NBC. She also spearheaded a 13-episode straight-to-series deal with Netflix and Marvel for a drama titled A.K.A. Jessica Jones about a superhero suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sony Pictures will create a narrative feature about police corruption based on The Seven Five, a 2014 documentary directed by Tiller Russell ’01.
David Ian Salter ’92 just finished editing The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which will be released domestically by Paramount in February 2015.
Peter Segal ’84 will direct the children’s tale Goblins for Disney.
Momita Sen Gupta ’92 was promoted to Executive VP of Production at Viacom Entertainment Group.
David Shanks ’14 was hired as a Staff Writer on NBC’s Shades of Blue.
Tyler Stringer ’96 was named Vice President of Business Development at Open Drives, a digital media storage company based in Santa Monica.
Miles Swarthout ’74 has published The Last Shootist, the sequel to his father’s 1975 novel The Shootist, which was the basis for the 1976 screen adaptation starring John Wayne.
Nate Thomas ’84 won an Emmy Award for a PSA he produced and directed for the FBI on intellectual property theft.
Jennifer Todd will executive produce Incorporated, a futuristic espionage thriller in development at SYFY.
James Vanderbilt ’99 will produce the feature film The West, a reimagining of characters from the Old West as modern-day thieves in Los Angeles, which has been purchased by Sony Pictures.
John Vourlis ’92 wrote and published Yoga For Freedom, a non-fiction travel book that follows twenty American yogis who return, forever changed, from a two-week trip to Nepal.
Jeff Wadlow ’01 will rewrite Sony’s Master of the Universe, based on the animated TV series from the 1980s.
Studio City, an hour-long family drama executive produced by John Wells ’82, received a put pilot commitment from Fox.
Max Winkler ’06 will executive produce for Fox an untitled single-camera comedy based on the life of former NBA all-star Baron Davis. Winkler will also executive produce for ABC a half-hour comedy anthology series titled Bachelor Party, loosely based on the 1984 feature.
Joe Woo Jr. ’76 wrote Life’s Abyss and Then You Dive, a memoir about his work on James Cameron’s film The Abyss.
Christopher Yost ’02 will write Marvel’s newest “Amazing X-Men” No. 15 comic book on the character Juggernaut. Yost will also co-write Thor 3.
Films In Release
Addicted
Joseph White ’04, Director of Photographer
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Shawn Levy ’94, Producer
Jason Lust ’00, Executive Producer
Annie
Tia Nolan ’91, Editor
Beyond the Lights
Terilyn Shropshire ’85, Editor
Big Eyes
Scott Alexander ’85, Writer-Producer
Larry Karaszewski ’85, Writer-Producer
Cake
Daniel Barnz ’95, Director
Patrick Tobin ’88 & ’90, Writer
Dracula Untold
John Schwartzman, Director of Photography
Foxcatcher
Megan Ellison, Producer
The Gambler
Chuck Michael, Sound Designer
Gone Girl
Josh Donen ’79, Producer
Jeff Cronenweth ’84, Director of Photography
The Good Lie
Brian Grazer ’74, Producer
Ron Howard, Producer
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I
Danny Strong ’96, Writer
Inherent Vice
Robert Elswit ’75, Director of Photography
Jessabelle
Kevin Greutert ’88, Director & Editor
Michael Fimognari ’01, Director of Photography
The Judge
Susan Downey ’95, Producer
Kelly & Cal
Jen McGowan ’05, Director
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Shawn Levy ’94, Producer & Director
Nightcrawler
Bob Elswit ’75, Director of Photography
Oculus
Michael Fimognari ’01, Cinematographer
Ouija
Juliet Snowden ’95, Writer
Rudderless
John Axelrad ’90, Editor
TV SHOWS ON THE AIR
A to Z
Ben Queen ’96, Writer & Executive Producer
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Prentice Penny ’95, Consulting Producer
Constantine
David Goyer ’88, Writer & Executive Producer
Cristela
Shawn Levy ’94, Executive Producer
The McCarthy’s
Tia Nolan ’91, Editor
Rectify
Kate Powers ’07, Staff Writer