Venice, Calif.-based production company Slim has added Belgian director Bram Coppens to its roster for commercials and branded content in the U.S. Coppens made his mark with campaigns for Adidas, including “Brazuca,” which introduced the new ball for the FIFA World Cup and won Silver and Bronze Clios, as well as “Golf Anthem.” He also directed a Super Bowl campaign for Jeep (featuring the spot “Love Story”) and commercials for Range Rover and Dockers. Coppens is a graduate of the Brussels Film Academy and continued his studies at the New York Film Academy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Utrecht in the Netherlands. He has lived in Los Angeles since 2011….
Lawrence (a.k.a. Law) Chen, formerly in-house director at BBDO NY, has joined the Shanghai roster of production house Stink. His tenure at BBDO ran from 2010 until the end of 2017 when he left for China to direct a feature. Chen earned a slot in SHOOT’s 2012 New Directors Showcase. His most awarded work includes “H-O-R-S-E” and “Play My Tweet,” both BBDO NY campaigns for Foot Locker featuring NBA star James Harden, in which he plays the internet — not just engaging fans, but letting them tell him what to do. Outside of advertising, Chen’s music videos and short films have amassed over 10 million views and earned screenings at major film festivals including Cannes, Tribeca and Sundance. His most substantial short, “I Don’t Make The Rules,” is a poignant piece inspired by the personal story of lead actor, Myles Humphus, who after a short stint in the NFL, worked a variety of blue collar odd jobs before becoming a successful actor and stunt double for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In the world of mainstream entertainment, Chen has directed for Netflix and is currently working on a big budget sci-fi action film in China…
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