HERE’S THE GIST OF THE JOURNEY SO FAR:
Born in Paris. French mom. American dad. Grew up between the two countries. Learned English watching movies on VHS and in theaters. Fell in love with the medium. Didn’t plan to go to college. Went to Africa instead. Somehow got into Yale.
Got drafted into the French army. Served a year as a director in the film division. Moved to Los Angeles ready to hate it — planning to move to New York to be happy. Loved it. Made great friends. Became an Assistant Director. Got into the DGA. Worked with Wim and Werner and guys like that.
Started producing commercials right around age 30. It was great money. Brought what he’d learned from independent movies (i.e. the real weekly rate of things) to commercials and made people a bunch of money. Thought he was on his way.
Then had lunch with his friend Doug, who’d just gotten a job at Phoenix Pictures working for Mike Medavoy on the Sony lot in Culver City.
Said: “Man, I always wanted to make big studio movies.”
Doug said: “Well, turns out there’s a desk that just opened up. Want me to put you up for it?”
Said: “Yeah, sure. If I hate it, I’ll just quit and go back to commercials, having crossed that off my list.”
He got the job.
He loved it.
It was working for Brad Fischer.
They were just finishing Zodiac with David Fincher. He got to work on that a bit — and on its premiere in Cannes.
Then Shutter Island with Scorsese, which got him promoted to Creative Executive. Then Black Swan.
After that, he became VP and started producing for the company.
That’s as much of his life as he has clear perspective on. He finally made it to New York, 25 years late — but still, he kept his promise.
What he’s doing now is building a new AI-native production company/agency called Re(Ai)lism™, based on the pretty simple notion that you can make great work with AI that doesn’t have to feel over-glossed and insincere.
That level of slickness, he feels, undermines your storytelling.
Hit him if you want to make something.