The leaders from the RingSide Creative/Cutters Studios creative collective announced that the postproduction activities of RingSide will operate as Cutters Studios Detroit. This development is aimed at serving its clients more efficiently and increasing synergy across its creative services. In conjunction with the debut of Cutters Studios Detroit, its CEO Steve Wild and partner, Chicago based Cutters, Inc. CEO Tim McGuire, also welcomed Kurt Kulas to serve as managing director.
Kulas was most recently the managing partner for international production consultancy Admaniax. His experience includes five years as director of content development for Campbell Ewald, more than 20 years with Doner culminating in the role of director of integrated production, and another four years in a similar leadership capacity with Young & Rubicam. Leading production departments often consisting of more than 60 staff members across multiple agencies, Kulas has produced creative content spanning the full range of brand experiences, on locations from Borneo to Costa Rica, London, New Zealand and beyond. His client credits include 7-Eleven, British Petroleum, Cadillac, Chiquita Bananas, Chrysler, Del Taco, Detroit Zoo, Lowes, Lincoln, Mazda, Pennzoil, PNC Bank, Ralph Lauren and most recently, Experian, OnStar, USAA, and the U.S. Navy.
“Kurt has very often been our client, so naturally, he knows what makes our clients tick, what they need from us, what works and what doesn’t,” McGuire began. “His background as a producer, executive producer and head of production will bring greater insight about our clients’ needs than we have ever had here in the past.”
“Across its studios, Cutters offers the ability to encompass a campaign with all the marketing components under one roof,” Kulas said. “That’s something I and many others find very attractive. The fewer production partners clients need to manage their work, the more synergy that work often has.” Asked about the main draw at Cutters Studios, he quickly confirmed, “It’s the talent.”
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More