Haymaker, the award-winning Swedish visual effects studio, has expanded its U.S. operations and opened a new facility in Los Angeles. Haymaker CEO and lead VFX supervisor Alex Hansson has named Leslie Sorrentino as executive producer and director of new business for the Los Angeles office.
Haymaker has developed major campaigns for such premium brands as Puma, Girard-Perregaux, Burger King, and Hyundai, as well as such feature films as Borg vs. McEnroe, Chappaquiddick, and the Cannes Film Festival opening selection The Dead Don’t Die.
Sorrentino is a multiple Clio and an Emmy Award-winning advertising and VFX veteran. His resume includes work with director Martin Scorsese, as well as Bethesda Game Studios (publisher of the FALLOUT video game series), the National Football League, global agencies, movie studios, and TV networks.
With a high profile and stature as a VFX studio in Scandinavia, Haymaker maintains a top drawer creative team thanks to the artist-driven nature of the company. Hansson founded Haymaker in 2008 with the goal of creating a studio that placed artistic passion and the use of the latest technology first while reducing the number of executives and administrative positions to the bare minimum, significantly lowering costs for clients while delivering work of the highest quality.
“We started with nothing and built Haymaker into one of the most accomplished high-end independent VFX studios in Europe,” Hansson said. “That experience taught us new ways of pulling off the impossible for our clients. And I knew instantly that Leslie’s experience, personality, and drive made him a perfect fit for our entry into the U.S. market.”
Sorrentino related, “After seeing the level of work Haymaker was delivering, I was convinced they were going to succeed in the U.S. Alex pushes to get that extra bit of perfection, which is a real difference maker.”
Haymaker’s studio is already in full swing; the Swedish team is collaborating with the Los Angeles office to deliver multiple advertising campaigns. In addition, Haymaker is in pre-production for the highly anticipated remake of the classic feature The Emigrants to be released in December 2021.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season — 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More