HOPELESs PICTURES (10:00pm ET/PT), followed by Greg the Bunny
and The Festival (10:30pm ET/PT)
All premiere August 19 as part of IFC’s destination night – Film Fanatic Fridays.
In a new initiative, IFC will premiere the entire programming block online at www.ifc.com on August 12 – one week before their on-air debut – ensuring that it will be available to independent film lovers everywhere!
These three shows will also be available to 3.2 million Netflix members, shortly after they premiere in August. They are the first in a 10 title, two-year output deal between IFC and Netflix. Netflix will have an exclusive home video window.
HOPELESs PICTURES
Hollywood Gets Even Weirder
Animated comedy series, 9 episodes, 10pm ET/PT
Written, directed and produced by Bob Balaban, cast includes Michael McKean, Jennifer Coolidge, Martin Mull, Bob Balaban and Jonathan Katz. Cameos by: Lisa Kudrow, John Michael Higgins, Isaac Mizrahi, Jerry Stiller, Paul Dooley, Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman), Nora Ephron, Anne Meara, Paul Weitz and Rob Reiner.
In this wicked animated comedy, Mel Wax (Michael McKean) is the head of a dysfunctional Hollywood indie movie studio, Hopeless Pictures, so named after his deceased parents, Hope and Les. In the land where a studio chief is only as good as his last big flop, Wax struggles to reign in out-of-control, pill-popping Swedish directors and egomaniacal stars, while coping with a vengeful soon-to-be ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow), assorted affairs, his idiot nephew/head of production (Bob Balaban), a hostile takeover and an inept psychiatrist, Dr. Stein (Jonathan Katz). Jennifer Coolidge plays Hopeless Pictures’ head of development, Tracy, as well as actress Nina Boroslova.
Mel Wax interacts with real Hollywood players, such as directors Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner, publicist Peggy Siegel, Paul Weitz and Isaac Mizrahi.
August 19 – Episode 1: Mel struggles with issues of self-esteem when he breaks a tooth and can’t get an appointment with an exclusive Hollywood dentist. Meanwhile, his wife discovers unfamiliar pink panties in his car. Production in Zagreb is soaring over budget, and reports say that the insane director, Ignatious Millmo, has bitten a heathy-sized chunk from the arm of an extra. Thankfully, Mel’s shrink assures him that the good news is that his problems are all real. Cameos by Lisa Kudrow, Isaac Mizrahi and Peggy Siegel.
August 26 – Episode 2 Mel Wax faces a hostile buyout of Hopeless Pictures, a confrontation with his wife after she discovers more evidence of his infidelities and a disaster in Zagreb, where the incorrigible Swedish director drives his car into a mountain and ends up in a coma.
September 2 – Episode 3 Tracy (Jennifer Coolidge) finds she gets a better sense of a script if she has sex with the writer. Meanwhile, Mel Wax seduces an actress auditioning for the saleswoman’s assistant in “Death of a Saleswoman,” and the hostile takeover bidders close in for the kill.
Stay tuned for more maniacal episodes of HOPELESs PICTURES
BIOGRAPHIES
Bob Balaban, producer/director/actor/writer
Balaban produced and starred in Gosford Park (Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, British Academy Award, New York Critic’s Award, SAG Award.) He produced, directed and wrote The Last Good Time starring Armin Mueller-Stahl and Maureen Stapleton, and directed the black comedy, Parents. He directed the pilot for the long running series, Tales From the Darkside and executive produced Celebrity Charades for AMC with Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe. Currently, he is in pre-production for a movie he’s directing in the fall.
Bob has appeared in nearly fifty movies, including Midnight Cowboy, Catch 22, Close Encounters, Altered States, 2010, Absence of Malice, Prince of the City, Deconstructing Harry, Jakob the Liar, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, The Mexican, Ghost World, Gosford Park, A Mighty Wind, Marie and Bruce and recently completed two films – Capote with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Trust the Man with Julianne Moore and Billy Crudup. He is about to start production on M. Night Shyamalan’s next movie.
Broadway performances include Plaza Suite, The Inspector General (Tony nomination) and Speed the Plow. Off-Broadway includes You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, The White House Murder Case, Marie and Bruce, Pavlo Hummel and Some Americans Abroad. Balaban produced and directed the Off-Broadway evening, The Exonerated (Drama Desk Award, #1 play-New York Times, Outer Critics Circle Award) as well as the National Tour starring Robin Williams, Stockard Channing and Mia Farrow. He also directed the film version of The Exonerated for Court TV, starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover and Aidan Quinn. Balaban also writes a series of best-selling children’s books for Scholastic called McGrowl.
Michael McKean (Mel Wax)
Since 1976, McKean has appeared in over 75 different projects. He began his career as a member of the satirical “Credibility Gap,” then went on to write, star in, and sometimes direct, the ’70s series Laverne and Shirley. McKean also co-wrote and starred in Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap.
Other feature film performances include A Mighty Wind, HBO Film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, 100 Mile Rule, Haunted Lighthouse, The Guru, Teddy Bears’ Picnic, The Brady Bunch Movie, The Big Picture (which McKean co-wrote with Christopher Guest,) Auto Focus, Little Nicky, Beautiful, True Crime, Teaching Mrs. Tingle and Mystery, Alaska.
Television performances include Comedy Central’s Primetime Glick as well as Saturday Night Live, Tracey Takes On and Dream On (for which McKean also directed episodes), Alias and The X Files. McKean wrote, directed and starred in the IFC’s 2002-03 Image Campaign. Theater performances include his Broadway debut in Rupert Holmes’ Accomplice, Broadway musical Hairspray and Woody Allen’s A Second Hand Memory.
In addition to co-writing an Academy Award®-nominated song for A Mighty Wind (with wife Annette O’Toole,) McKean also collaborated on the soundtrack of This Is Spinal Tap , composed music for Laverne & Shirley, Morton & Hayes, Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.
Jennifer Coolidge (Tracy /Nina Boroslova)
Coolidge can be seen on NBC’s Joey opposite Matt LeBlanc and Drea De Matteo. She recently lent her vocal talents to the animated hit film Robots. Playing ‘Aunt Fanny,’ Coolidge played a robot with an extra large derriere who gives refuge to the other broken down bots.
Other feature film performances include Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde II: Red, White, and Blonde, the American Pie trilogy, A Cinderella Story, Pootie Tang and Down to Earth.
Television performances include guest roles on Sex and the City, Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, According to Jim, King of the Hill, and Father of the Pride.
Jonathan Katz (Dr. Stein)
Jonathan Katz co-created and starred in Comedy Central’s animated series Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist. For his work, Katz received Comedy Central’s first-ever Emmy Award (for Outstanding Primetime Voiceover Performance), the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and two Cable Ace Awards.
Feature film performances include Daddy Day Care, State and Main, Things Change, The Spanish Prisoner and The Independent. Katz co-wrote the story for David Mamet’s House of Games.
Katz created and produced WB’s Raising Dad and is a regular contributor to public radio’s The Next Big Thing. Additional television credits include an HBO stand-up comedy special, a recurring role on CBS’ Ink, and an appearance as himself in HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show.
Jonathan’s first book To Do Lists of the Dead was published in 2000 and he is now working on a new book, Humility: What Is It and Where Can I Get Some? Originally a musician and songwriter, Katz fronted a rhythm and blues group, Katz and Jammers.
Adam Kassen & Mark Kassen – Producers / CEO and Co-presidents of Trigger Street Independent, Production Company
Adam Kassen & Mark Kassen are producers, writers, and directors for Film, Television and Theatre. They partnered with Kevin Spacey and producer Dana Brunetti to form Trigger Street Independent, an independently financed production company. Based in New York, the company has a fully-financed film division as well as production and post-production facilities.
Trigger Street Independent is currently producing its first feature, “The Sasquash Dumpling Gang,” from the makers of Napoleon Dynamite. Other film producing credits include: Trigger Happy for IFC Productions and Ed Burns’ Looking for Kitty. Television projects include AMC’s Celebrity Charades, Court TV/Sundance Channel’s No Joking, TLC’s Faking It, ABC’s Wife Swap and Comedy Central’s Roommate Wanted.
As an actor, Mark Kassen played the lead in NBC’s The Secret of Growing up Brady, had recurring roles on CBS’s Cybil and NBC’s Third Watch, and played the lead in feature film Trigger Happy. He performed in the Broadway production The last Night of Ballyhoo, and the Off-Broadway Things you Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight.
About the Production
For IFC, Debbie DeMontreux and Evan Shapiro served as Executive Producers and Susan Heimbinder served as Supervising Producer.
GREG THE BUNNY
Deranged puppet parodies
13 episodes; follows Hopeless Pictures to complete half-hour block
The Ear-story of Greg the Bunny
- 1997
New York public access show called Junktape. The show featured the first incarnation of Greg the Bunny interacting with his wacky East Village neighbors. - 1999-2000
IFC picked up the show as The Greg the Bunny Hosts, and Greg and his puppet posse hosted interstitial parodies for Tuesday Night films. - 2002
Fox picked up the idea for a sitcom Greg the Bunny, which aired for 13 episodes - 2005
For Greg the Bunny and Warren the Ape, the cancellation of their Fox sitcom is now just a painful memory. More current concerns are overdue rent and funding Warren’s drinking habit. So they’ve returned to where it all began: making film parodies for IFC.
August 19: Bunnie Hall: A soul-searching response to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall; Greg falls for a beautiful (live) lobster, will he be able to find love amid neurosis? Also featuring Warren the Ape in the obligatory Tony Roberts role.
August 26: The 13th Step: In this ode to Barton Fink, Warren tells the show’s creators that he is going to Martha’s Vineyard with his wife Maggie. But he actually goes to a lonely room at the Carter Hotel. There, Warren obsesses over calling his wife, with whom he is in a trial separation. After a good dose of booze, the Ape comes face to face with his inner demons and attempts suicide.
September 2: Sleazy Rider: Greg, Warren and crew are tired of working for ‘the man’ and hit the road in search of real America. Draws upon road movies such as Easy Rider, Harold and Maude and Sideways.
September 16: Dead Puppet Storage: A behind-the-scenes look as crew struggle to shoot Warren, Count and Greg applying their lauded acting talents to perform their favorite Pulp Fiction scenes. Catch the puppets’ performance of Samuel L. Jackson’s famous monologue.
September 23: You Know, For Kids: Homage to all Coen Brothers films as Greg and Warren attempt to defraud IFC by staging an inept kidnapping plot. Tragically, one puppet meets his fate at the bottom of a wood-chipper. Stay tuned for the Coen Brothers’ Fargo at 11pm ET/PT, airing as part of IFC’s regular Friday night film strand, “Pulp Indies.”
September 30: The Addiction: After watching vampire movie The Addiction, Greg becomes convinced he’s been bitten by a vampire. He fears sunlight, drinks the blood of a live cat and tries to force Spencer (his roommate and the show’s director) to eat bugs. Eventually his fetish is demystified when Spence makes him watch the sunset and his fur fails to catch on fire. Stay tuned for The Addiction at 11pm ET/PT, airing as part of IFC’s regular Friday night film strand, “Pulp Indies.”
The following shows do not yet have airdates:
Naturally Sewn Killers: Warren snaps, pulling Greg with him, as he launches into a maniacal Natural Born Killers spree. After knocking off Spencer and Sean, they take it to the IFC offices, picking off executives one by one.
The Blues She is My Friend: This black-and-white prison movie, inspired by the Jim Jarmusch film, Down by Law, features Greg and Warren as prison inmates who learn that show biz is the worst prison of all. Features harmonica riff by Warren the Ape and sodomy humor for the kiddies.
2001-1: Space & Stuff: This ambitious homage to Stanley Kubrick features Greg and Warren as astronauts on a mission to Jupiter. When HAL the computer starts getting snitty, Warren convinces Greg the Bunny to shut the psychotic CPU down. But HAL puts that chess-champ brain to good use, and has GTB ejected into deep space. Then, it’s up to Warren to enter Hal’s brain and pull the plug. What follows next is a bizarre exploration of the infinite – featuring a stocked liquor cabinet, some off-screen aliens and a giant monolith.
Daddyhood: This loving tribute to David Lynch’s Eraserhead, features Greg the Bunny as a lonely father to a baby potato. Featuring the creepiest mutant baby you ever saw on a puppet show, as well as a fantasy girl trapped inside a vacuum cleaner.
October 21: Sex, Button Eyes and a Video Ape: While Greg the Bunny and Seth Green are shooting a public service announcement (PSA), a creepy technician played by Warren the Ape tries to get the two actors involved in pornography. Inspired by Autofocus.
November 18: The Godpappy : Violent and gripping, this homage to The Godfather, featuring Count Blah as the Don, Warren the Ape as Tom Hagen, Gary the Bunny as Sonny, Marc Grass as Solazzo and Greg the Bunny as Michael.
Martian Serum 7 From Mars: Along the lines of Ed Wood, young, enthusiastic Greg seeks to make a short film about his idol, the great Count Blah. What follows is a sketchy documentary about the Count and his long career in “horror-wood,” including clips of past performances.
BIOGRAPHIES
Greg the Bunny
Greg the Bunny is a dreamer. Sweet, cuddly, and vulnerable…yet with an ambition that will stop at nothing to make his dreams come true. Born to a rabbit puppet and an absentee human father, Greg was raised in Franklyn Lakes, New Jersey. His mother, a sweat-shop seamstress, scraped up enough money to put Greg through all-human schools. The only Fabricated Americans he saw as peers were the ones on television. This began an early obsession with the medium – you might even say that T.V. was Greg’s surrogate father.
In school, Greg tried out for school plays and local theatre. Though he was rarely taken seriously, Greg stole every spotlight – whether upstaging Jesus in the nativity play or updating “Of Mice and Men” so that Lenny really did get to tend the rabbits.
When his mother died of Black Lung, the teenage bunny hopped a freight to the big city. Since then, Greg has found minor success as the sidekick on a failed local-access show, Uncle Coach, a string of local commercials and a disastrous sitcom on the Fox Network.
Currently, Greg shares a dingy Los Angeles apartment with Warren “the Ape” DeMontague. With the help of his agent, Pal Friendlies, and the advice of his idol, Count Blah – Greg strives to once again find a spotlight. He will crash any audition, topple any competition and undergo any transformation necessary in order to secure himself another shot at fame.
Warren “The Ape” DeMontague
Warren DeMontague is a theatre-trained thespian with a checkered and mysterious past. His origins change with every story he tells, but common threads indicate he grew up in a small English town called Wainscotting. Born with natural acting talent, Warren came to the States after minor success in all-Fabricated road-show productions of Shakespeare and a brief run on a BBC radio drama, that ended promptly when “scandal” revealed his true identity as a puppet. This traumatic career event soured the Ape, and triggered his relationship with substance abuse and vice.
Warren has worked in children’s theatre, biblical productions, nature documentaries, experimental film, soft-core porn, exploitation films and appears on the cutting-room floors of several eclectic movies from our counterculture.
Warren is best known for appearances in 60s and 70s British cult films, ranging from all-puppet exploitation and horror (some with fellow actor Frederick Blah) to the early works of Mike Leigh, John Boorman and Mike Hodges. As the “token puppet” in London’s bad-boy elite social circles, tabloids have scrambled to break stories on his fabled breakup with Twiggy Lawson and his week-long binges with David Hemmings and Michael Caine.
Emerging from a dramatic breakup with his on-again/off-again partner of ten years, former “Miss New Hampshire 1982,” Maggie DeMontague – a human trophy wife of questionable morals and even more questionable breasts – Warren is near bankruptcy and living with former sitcom co-star Greg the Bunny. Fresh from his latest stint at recovery from alchoholism, Warren has placed much of his personal angst into a screenplay entitled, Postcards from the Shitstorm (working title) which he is currently developing (with the help of his agent, Pal Friendlies) into an independent feature.
Frederick “Count” Blah
Frederick Blah is a veteran of the silver screen – one of the first Fabricated Americans to make a name for himself in the entertainment industry. Born Frederick Bergen Bladovich, Blah was brought to the States from Hungary as a child.
Frederick worked as an extra in many large-scale productions. Desperate to “stand out” among his fellow background actors, Blah raided the costume department of the old Warners studio and dressed up in vampire garb. Indeed, filmmakers noticed the vampire in background of their entirely un-horrific musical. Rather than re-shooting major sequences, the studio decided to explain the gaffe with a small scene that featured the fanged apparition. Hence, Frederick’s song and dance number in the early WB musical I Sent My Heart to SingySing. The film was a box office failure, but the famed “Vampire of Singy-Sing” took on cult status, and an unlikely star was born.
Blah found his niche and adopted the personality of “Count” Blah. Unlike human counterparts Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Blah worked on the fringe of the horror business, taking roles in all-puppet exploitation films and Hammer productions. Blah had brief success with Count Blah’s House of Horrors, a low-budget television production.
In the early 70s, Blah was making puppet headlines in the society pages as a playboy, with a list of wives to rival Johnny Carson. Coupled with these society tales were rumors of his bisexuality, a rumor he vehemently denied.
Blah mounted a crossover into children’s television, on a new show called Sesame Street. It was here that our puppet would first meet his archrival ‘Muppet’. Count Von Count, a longtime friend of Jim Henson and famous Hollywood numerologist, took America by storm. The purple Count’s success sent Blah into a tale-spin which left him out of the spotlight for over a decade, and while living off investments and family money, he developed a serious morphine addiction.
Currently, Blah lives in the drab remains of his California estate, completing a biography (All About the Blah) about the rise-and-fall of his career, his triumph over addiction, his sexual past and his struggle for identity.
Seth Green
Television performances include upcoming NBC series Four Kings. He’s also co-executive producing, writing, directing and doing multiple voices for Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim while simultaneously working on new episodes of Family Guy and Greg the Bunny.
Film performances include lead role in The Best Man, an upcoming indie comedy, Without A Paddle, The Italian Job and Party Monster, Knockaround Guys, Can’t Hardly Wait, America’s Sweethearts, Rat Race and the Austin Powers trilogy.
Seth Green has worked almost non-stop since he began in the business at age seven, including David Mamet’s theater production American Buffalo and feature films Hotel New Hampshire, Woody Allen’s Radio Days, Big Business, My Stepmother is an Alien, Can’t Buy Me Love and many others. Green was a series regular in Buffy the Vampire Slayer , ABC’s Good and Evil, ABC’s The Byrds of Paradise, and CBS’ Temporarily Yours.
Green fell in love with the script for Fox’s series, Greg the Bunny and he was lured back to television to play Jimmy Bender, the best friend, roommate and co-worker to the title character, a puppet, or as he will correct you, “a Fabricated American.”
Dan Milano, Spencer Chinoy and Sean Baker, Greg the Bunny creators The three met at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where they developed the wacky puppet series, which aired on New York public access, Fox and IFC and which has developed a cult following.
Milano has sold a sitcom pilot script Jeff Space to Warner Bros and feature film Me and My Monster to Sony Pictures. He has also been commissioned to rewrite scripts for Sony, Paramount and Warner Bros. Chinoy is a commercial director for Moxie Pictures, having directed a number of award-winning national and regional spots. Baker’s second featureTake Out has screened at over 20 festivals and will be released theatrically in Winter 2006 by Cavu Pictures.
Moxie Pictures, Production Company
Founded by director Dan Levinson in 1992, Moxie brings critically acclaimed talent to the commercial arena, and has produced award-winning commercials for clients worldwide. Robert Fernandez, formerly EVP at @radical media and executive producer of Academy Award winning The Fog of War, recently joined as the company’s president. The company’s stable of directors include Wes Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jim Sheridan, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Cameron Crowe and John Waters.
Launched in 2000, Moxie’s feature film and television division is run by Hollywood producer Francesca Silvestri. Current projects include Miramax’s teen comedy Outward Blonde, starring Hilary Duff; Swing Choir, starring John C. Reilly; romantic comedy Mammoni; Showtime series, based on Lauren Henderson’s Sam Jones novels; and ABC Family’s The Perfect Life. Moxie also has a development deal with IMAX.
About the Production
For IFC, Debbie DeMontreux and Evan Shapiro served as Executive Producers and Jessica Wolfson served as Supervising Producer.
THE FESTIVAL
“Disaster Film” takes on a whole new meaning
6 episodes, 10:30pm
Truer than fiction, stranger than life… THE FESTIVAL is an ensemble comedy, told from the perspective of Cookie, a documentarian hired by IFC.
Cookie’s subject is Rufus Marquez, a quixotic young director embarking on his virgin voyage to the prestigious Mountain United Film Festival (MUFF) in Sutton. The film is The Unreasonable Truth of Butterflies. The goal is a distribution deal. And the pressure is on. As Rufus attempts to keep afloat in a sea of cell phones and self-importance, disaster deals him a knockout blow…and another…and another…
Episode 1 : When Rufus arrives for the 13th annual Mountain United Film Festival, he has high hopes for Butterflies. The film is sure to land him the big, fat distribution deal he has dreamed of — with a healthy side order of stardom and popularity. Well, at the very least, he’ll move out of his mother’s basement. His first prickle of anxiety arrives with Lance — Rufus’ gregarious (read: loudmouth) lead actor – and once best friend. Fresh from an “integral” death scene in a “big” Hollywood picture, Lance effortlessly snatches the limelight from Rufus by churning out his slippery charm and flashing around his pearly whites. To make matters worse, Rufus is stuck sharing a room with an incurable short filmmaker, Gigi, who will be screening her 12th short film, My Vagina Scares You.
Episode 2: MUFF is underway. Rufus — unprepared for the excess of schmoozing activities — maneuvers an assortment of pretentious filmmakers, salivating distributors, smile-for-the-camera festival VIPs and overzealous festival sponsors. Vic Morgenstein, a one-hit-wonder distributor, butters Rufus up for the kill. However, at the premiere screening of Butterflies, the theater is empty, save a few misguided stragglers slumped in their seats. But, before the curtain is even drawn, Rufus discovers that his skimpy audience is the very least of his problems…
Episode 3: Lance smoothly salvages a disaster-struck screening by performing his own, loose interpretation of Butterflies and, surprisingly, the audience eats it up. Distributor Vic Morgenstein offers to buy the film, sight unseen. But Bobby Diamond, a big shot distributor (and universally reviled weasel) ain’t gonna let that happen without stirring up the shit. Though thrilled with the attention, Rufus drops back down to reality with a solid thud when he can’t get past the doorman at his lead actor, Lance’s party.
Episode 4: Rufus’ second screening. A full theater buzzes with anticipation. The print has been delivered, the projector is threaded, and the crowd is ready. But wait. Disaster strikes again. Will Rufus ever get his film seen in front of an audience? Is somebody out to sabotage him?
Episode 5: With two failed screenings, Rufus is overwhelmed with anxiety. But the buzz for Butterflies is hotter than ever. Rufus enlists Gigi to bring his film print to the projection room for his third and final screening opportunity, citing her as the only person he can trust. The theater is overflowing. The crowd feels they are part of history. But will Rufus’ last chance for cinematic glory be stolen again?
Episode 6: Only after total devastation of the heart and soul, can ‘Zen’ sink in. A strange twist of fate sends Rufus on another mis-adventure. This time, it’s called Curse of the Butterflies.
BIOGRAPHIES
Phil Price, Director; Brandi-Ann Milbradt, producer
Philms Pictures, Production Company
Based in Montreal, Philms was founded by writer-director Phil Price in 1998, who began his career directing music videos and commercials. With the arrival of partner and producer, Brandi-Ann Milbradt, Philms moved into feature film production. In 2002, Philms produced their first feature-length comedy, Summer.
In 2003, Philms went into production on Hatley High, a quirky comedy about high school chess in a small town. Hatley High won Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival in the film discovery program. Philms is in pre-production on a third feature, Prom Wars, a comedy set in the world of private schools.
Nicolas Wright (Rufus)
Wright has performed in theater across Montreal and Toronto. He was a founding member of the award-winning theatre company Gravy Bath Productions. In 2003, he played the title role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray in the first ever New Classic Theatre Festival, which earned him a nomination for Best Actor by the Montreal Critic’s Circle. Other stage performances include Chorus in Henry.Octobre.1970, B* in Slawomir Mrozec’s The Party and Sicinius in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
Wright plays leading roles in animated series Delta State and feature film Hatley High.
Wright co-founded the production company DNM Films, which produces documentaries and television commercials. As co-writer and director, his short film Toutouffe was awarded ‘Official Jury Selection’ at 2004 Just For Laughs Festival. Wright graduated from John Abbott College Professional Theatre program and from British American Drama Academy’s ‘ A Mid Summer in Oxford’; program.
James A. Woods (Lance)
Woods’ television performances include Fox Family’s Big Wolf on Campus, YTV’s Seriously Weird, MTV’s Undressed, T-Action’s Fries with That, Showcase/Oxygen’s Sexual Anthropology, Fox’s Galidor and Lifetime’s Addicted.com
Feature film performances include the starring role in Hatley High, and appearances in two upcoming features Eternity and Levity. Woods – also a singer-songwriter who plays guitar and piano – was trained at the New York Lee Strasberg Institute.
About the Production
For IFC, Debbie DeMontreux and Evan Shapiro served as Executive Producers and Susan Heimbinder served as Supervising Producer.
ABOUT IFC TELEVISION
The Independent Film Channel (IFC) is the first and most widely distributed network dedicated to independent film 24 hours a day, uncut and commercial free.
IFC celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2004 with its most extensive original programming line-up ever, which included Nanette Burstein’s Film School, Rocked With Gina Gershon, In the Company of Women and John Landis’ Slasher.
Recent series and specials include Xan Cassavetes’ Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, Don Letts’ PUNK: attitude, Reservoir Dogs Revisited, the fourth season of Dinner For Five, second season of Ultimate Film Fanatic and monthly review show Henry’s Film Corner. Upcoming series and specials include Bob Balaban’s Hopeless Pictures, the return of Greg the Bunny film parodies, The Festival, a verite satire about a first-time filmmaker’s voyage to a film festival, and vThe Spaghetti West.
2006 projects include Wanderlust (2006), created by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor), and Yo Soy Boricua, Pa’que Tu Los Sepas! (I’m a Boricua, Just so you Know!) directed by Rosie Perez.
The Independent Film Channel is a part of IFC Companies, which has established itself as the future of independent film. With the television network, as well as a film distribution and production unit and a VOD service, IFC Companies has created over the course of the past decade a revolutionary end-to-end business model and brand that focuses on developing and nurturing talent and maximizing the value of independent film. IFC Companies uses its unique cross-platform position to broaden the audience of independent film and to provide independent filmmakers with a strong voice. IFC Companies is a division of Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC.