Catherine Tarr

A 19-year veteran of Creative Artists Agency, in-house Story Editor Catherine Tarr supervises the story analysts who review all materials for CAA.   Catherine also works closely with the agents to identify available material specific to a clients’ needs.  Other responsibilities include training story analysts in how to write great coverage and how to identify potential movie ideas from magazines and other publications.

Catherine enjoys discovering new writers, some of whom have gone on to great success, including Oscar-nominated Iris Yamashita (“Letters From Iwo Jima”).  Other writers Catherine has supported include Ann Peacock, who most recently adapted the screenplay for “Nights in Rodanthe,” and John Orloff, who wrote the screenplay for “A Mighty Heart.”  Catherine often reviews the work of screenplay competition finalists looking for bright talent.

Prior to joining CAA, Catherine was the Executive Story Editor for MGM-UA. 

William M. Akers

Author of Your Screenplay Sucks!, 100 Ways To Make It Great, William M. Akers is a Lifetime Member of the WGA and has had three feature films produced from his screenplays.  Akers has written scripts, series television, and documentaries for the MGM, Disney, and Universal Studios, as well as Fox, NBC, ABC, TNN television networks.  Currently, director Jon Amiel is attached to direct Akers’s script about the fall of Saigon.  He teaches screenwriting and filmmaking at Vanderbilt University. 

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa met at Pratt Institute to study film and eventually ventured out to Hollywood.  They got their start working in animation at Nickelodeon and have since written “Cats and Dogs,” “Bad Santa,” and “Bad News Bears.”  They have just completed their first directorial debut, “I Love You Phillip Morris,” which stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. 

Far Shariat

Far Shariat moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue a career in agricultural literature.  At first, he enjoyed the easy money and hedonistic lifestyle, but he couldn't deal with the rampant nepotism and infighting.  He took seasonal work in the film industry while trying to find a proper vocation.  His first job was interning at Mad Chance, Andrew Lazar's film company at Warner Bros.  

As an executive at Mad Chance, Far helped oversee “Cats and Dogs,” which is where he first met John Requa and Glenn Ficarra.  Far was immediately impressed by their writing talent and ability to feign sincerity while getting script notes.  He hoped to know these writers better.

In addition to producing feature films, Far also works in television as an executive producer and writer on the NBC drama “Life” starring Damian Lewis. 

Craig Mazin

Craig Mazin is the co-writer of the hit comedies “Scary Movie 3” and “Scary Movie 4.” He has written in a variety of film genres, including screen adaptations of Philip K. Dick's “The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford” and the classic Broadway play “Harvey,” both for Miramax Films.  Currently, he is writing an action-comedy for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, a family adventure for 20th Century Fox and a book adaptation for director Scott Frank and Mandate Pictures.

Craig served on the Writers Guild of America, West Board of Directors from 2004-2006, and he runs The Artful Writer--a website for professional and aspiring screenwriters.

Craig lives with his wife and two children in a small town north of Los Angeles.

Dan Weiss

D.B. Weiss published a novel, Lucky Wander Boy, in 2003. In 2004, his script Kashmir was acquired by Warner Bros., and since then he has worked on a variety of film projects, including Ender's Game and Halo.

His most current work has been an adaptation of Neil Strauss's book The Game, and a prequel to the film I Am Legend.  In addition, he and David Benioff are currently writing and producing Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books, for HBO.

Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi

Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi made their screenwriting debut in 2001 with the critically acclaimed and enduring drama Crazy/Beautiful, starring Kirsten Dunst.  Manfredi wrote and the two directed the independent feature Bug (2002), which garnered multiple festival awards. From there, they wrote Aeon Flux, the 2005 science fiction epic starring Charlize Theron.

Since, Manfredi and Hay have become known for their ability to move easily between action, comedy and adventure. Next up for the two is Clash of the Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier, for a spring 2010 release. That will be followed by the comic book adaptation R.I.P.D. for director David Dobkin, the comedy Man-Witch for Todd Phillips, and The Boys, an adaptation of Garth Ennis’ darkly comic superhero tale for producer Neal Moritz.

Linda Lichter

Linda Lichter received her degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973 and her law degree from Boalt Hall, The University of California in 1976.  She started her career at the law firm of Kaplan, Livingston, Goodwin, Berkowitz and Selvin, and she was a founding partner of Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman & Silverman. In 1992, she formed Lichter, Grossman & Nichols (now Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman, Inc.).  The firm specializes in representing individuals and companies in their transactions in the entertainment business.

Clients of the firm include actors such as Ralph Fiennes, Jean Reno, Connie Nielson, Abigail Breslin, Keifer Sutherland, Michael Cera and Jay Baruchel; directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Billy Ray, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the Wachowski Brothers, Luc Besson, Chris Noonan, Marc Forster, Susanne Bier, Jonathan Demme, Niki Caro, Jill Culton, Chris Sanders, Chris Jenkins, Roger Allers, Gary Trousedale and Miguel Arteta; writers such as Marc Norman, Dan Clowes, Ron Nyswaner, Linda Woolverton, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, David Franzoni, Andrew Marlowe, and David Diamond and David Weissman; and producers and financiers such as Gaumont, Smoke House Pictures (George Clooney), Mr. Mudd, and Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa (Bona Fide Productions).

Linda has been involved in the legal and business aspects of development, production and distribution of many studio and independent features.  In the last several years, she has been involved in such pictures as “Finding Neverland,” “Kinsey,” “Thumbsucker,” “The Good Girl,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “North Country,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” trilogy “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Babel,” “Little Children,” “The Kite Runner,“ “Quantum of Solace” and “Juno.”  She has been included on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the “100 Most Powerful Lawyers in Hollywood” and the “100 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood.”  She is also listed as one of the best lawyers in America in Chambers USA and Super Lawyers.  She has taught or lectured at Stanford Business School, the University of California Law School, the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium and the USC Entertainment Law Symposium, and has been on numerous panels for FIND, IFP East, Film Angels and Sundance. Linda has served on the boards of Los Angeles Theater Works, Women in Film, The Executive Board of the College of Letters and Sciences of the University of California at Berkeley, and The Actor’s Gang.

She lives in Pacific Palisades and is married to Nick Marck, a director, and they have three children, ages 19, 23 and 26.

Terry Rossio

Academy Award ®-nominated writer Terry Rossio co-wrote Shrek, the first ever Oscar winner for “Best Animated Film.”  Rossio and partner Ted Elliott co-wrote Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which received five Oscar nominations and won the People's Choice Award for “Favorite Motion Picture.” The pair also penned Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (the highest grossing film of 2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.  In 2006, Rossio and Bill Marsilii co-wrote and Rossio executive produced the romantic thriller Déjà vu, starring Denzel Washington.  Rossio's credits also include: Aladdin (top grossing film of 1992); The Mask of Zorro starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones; Shrek 2 (as Creative Consultant); Little Monsters, starring Fred Savage; Small Soldiers, starring Kirsten Dunst; and Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick. Elliott and Rossio were the first writers signed to an overall writing/producing deal at DreamWorks SKG. Their animated projects also include The Road to El Dorado, with Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh; Antz  (as Creative Consultants), with Woody Allen; and Sinbad (as Creative Consultants), with Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Rossio is the co-creator of Wordplay (http://www.wordplayer.com), an online resource for screenwriters.

David Franzoni

David Franzoni grew up in Vermont and attended the University of Vermont where he studied geology and paleontology.  After graduation, he went around the world on a motorcycle, and it was on this trip that he the conceived the idea for, what would become, Gladiator.

After Mr. Franzoni moved to Los Angeles he sold his first script which became the comedy, Jumpin' Jack Flash.  He then adapted the best selling bio, Citizen Cohn, for HBO, starring James Woods, for which he won the Cable Ace Award, the Pen Center West Literary Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy. 

While living with his family in Rome, he wrote Amistad for Steven Spielberg (released 1997) and began the research for his original script, Gladiator (released in 2000).  For writing and producing Gladiator, Mr. Franzoni won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA and was nominated for a second Oscar and a second BAFTA.  His original screenplay, King Arthur, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Antoine Fuqua, was released in 2004. 

Currently, he is preparing his adaptation of Chan Wook Park’s film, Joint Security Area, to direct.  He is also writing an untitled, original animated piece for DreamWorks Animation, and an original script about Edward Teach, aka “Blackbeard” the pirate, for Paramount. 

In 2009, Mr. Franzoni partnered with famed video game designer, Chris Cross, to produce console and computer games. 

Linda Woolverton

Linda Woolverton penned the animated motion picture Beauty and the Beast  in 1991. Upon its release, Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe for “Best Comedy/Musical” and became the first animated film to be nominated for “Best Picture.”  She later adapted the script of Beauty and the Beast for the Broadway stage, for which she received the Tony Award nomination for “Best Book of a Musical” in 1994.  She was also awarded the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Beauty and Beast for Best New Musical in the U.K. The musical has grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide and played in thirteen countries and 115 cities.

Woolverton co-wrote the live-action script for Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and the animated feature The Lion King (1994). The Lion King also won the Golden Globe for “Best Musical/Comedy” and still holds the record as the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history.

Woolverton also wrote the Book (shared) for the musical, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, which ran for five years at the Palace Theatre on Broadway.

Her screenplay for Alice in Wonderland is being directed by Tim Burton and is currently in production.  She is presently writing screenplays for Sony and Warner Bros studios.  In November 2008, Linda received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America-Animation Writers Caucus for her longtime work in the field of animation.

Derek Haas and Michael Brandt

Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas are the force behind such engaging, fast-paced, colorful screenplays as “2 Fast 2 Furious,” “3:10 to Yuma” and “Wanted.”
In 2007, Brandt and Haas wrote the remake “3:10 to Yuma,” starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. The film is a battle of wills between a rancher and the outlaw he’s captured.  Directed by James Mangold, the Lionsgate release opened number one at the box office on September 7, 2007.

In the summer of 2008, Universal brought to the screen, Brandt and Haas’ adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel, “Wanted,” starring Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and James McAvoy.  McAvoy plays a man who discovers his long-lost father is actually an assassin.  The film went on to gross more than $300 million worldwide.

Brandt and Haas first met at Baylor University in 1989, where they attended both undergrad and graduate school. At Baylor, Brandt received an MA in Film and Haas graduated with an MA in English Literature. The duo started writing screenplays together in the mid 1990s.

Their first produced work, Universal’s “2 Fast 2 Furious,” has amassed over $236 million in worldwide box office. Brandt and Haas followed up with the children's film “Catch that Kid” for 20th Century Fox, starring Kristen Stewart and Corbin Bleu.

The partners are currently writing the international thriller “The Matarese Circle” for MGM.  Haas’s first novel, “The Silver Bear,” a thriller centered on the life of an assassin, was published by Pegasus books (distributed by Norton) in July of 2008 and the sequel “Columbus” will be released this fall.

Andrew Deane

Andrew is a Partner at Industry Entertainment, a leading management/production company. He represents sought after writers/directors including Michael Brandt & Derek Haas (3:10 To Yuma, Wanted, 2 Fast 2 Furious), Michael Petroni (Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Till Human Voices Wake Us) and Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Transiberian), to name just a few.

Andrew Deane began as a producer, then moved into personal management.  Producing credits include See Spot Run (with David Arquette and Michael Clark Duncan, and opened #2 in the country in March 2001) for Warner Bros., and Paramount Classics’ Till Human Voices Wake Us with Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter.  Television credits: CBS’ mini-series Joan of Arc (with Leelee Sobieski, Jacqueline Bisset and Peter O’Toole), which received 13 Emmy nominations (including a nomination for Andrew for “Outstanding Miniseries”) and ABC’s Miracles (with Skeet Ulrich).

Prior to Industry, Deane headed the Literary Management division for Immortal Entertainment (in 2001) and had been a manager at Mosiac (formerly Gold/Miller Co.) for four years.

Andrew has executive produced two seasons of Emmy Award winning Masters of Horror (26 one hourfilms, each directed by horror’s greatest directors), one season of Fear Itself for NBC (a continuation, a third season, of Masters of Horror), six installments of ABC’s Masters of Science Fiction, and a four hour mini-series for the Sci-Fi Channel.

Ted Griffin

Ted Griffin debuted in 1999 with two original screenplays, “Best Laid Plans,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin, and “Ravenous,” starring Robert Carlyle and Guy Pearce.  Since then, his work has included the 2001 remake of “Ocean's Eleven,” with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts, and 2003's “Matchstick Men,” starring Nicolas Cage, directed by Ridley Scott, which Ted produced as well as co-wrote with his brother Nicholas (based on a novel by Eric Garcia).  Most recently, Ted collaborated with Martin Scorsese on the short film “The Key to Reserva.”

Adam Kaller

Adam Kaller is a partner at the Beverly Hills law firm Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman, LLP.  He specializes in the representation of actors, directors, writers and producers in the motion and television industries. He has a B.S. in business and finance from the University of Southern California and J.D. from Whittier College School of Law.  Adam lives in Pacific Palisades, California with his wife and four children.

Phil Gallo

Phil Gallo has been a journalist writing about music for the last 24 years. Formerly associate editor of Variety, where he oversaw all music coverage, Gallo currently writes about music for news websites such as LiveDaily and TheWrap.com. He resides in Los Angeles.

Marty Bowen

In the spring of 2006, Marty Bowen left his post as UTA Partner and Agent to pursue a career in producing. Bowen partnered with veteran producer Wyck Godfrey, to create their own production company, Temple Hill Entertainment.They secured a deal with New Line Cinema and immediately entered into production on their first film, The Nativity Story, from director Catherine Hardwicke. Next, the two went on to produce the Catherine Hardwicke-directed fantasy love story, Twilight, based on the best-selling series of books by Stephanie Meyer. They followed up Twilight with the Sydney Kimmel Entertainment-financed, romantic comedy, Management, starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, which premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and was released theatrically in May 2009.

Temple Hill Entertainment's most recent productions are Lasse Hallstrom's Dear John, starring Channing Tatum (Step Up, GI Joe) and Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Mamma Mia) based on the best-selling novel from Nicholas Sparks, and Chris Weitz's New Moon, the second film in the Twilight saga.

Bowen was raised outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. He graduated Cum Laude from Harvard in 1991 with a B.A. in American History. He began his career in UTA's Agent Training Program.  He resides in Los Angeles.

Alicen Schneider

Alicen co-leads the NBC Universal television music department heading up the creative division.   She currently music supervises Heroes, Royal Pains, Trauma, Caprica and Warehouse 13.  In addition, she supervises select NBC Agency promotional and marketing campaigns, including the Olympics and also assists with strategic music partnerships for multi-platform marketing, network and cable series.  She serves as music liaison between network and studio creative executives for stunt casting and on-camera opportunities and works with composers on the creation of original compositions and recordings for episodic series and promotions.

Before coming to NBC, Alicen was an A&R assistant in the television and film division of Warner Special Products (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records) as well as a deejay for KXLU-FM, Los Angeles. 

Darren Higman

Darren Higman (EVP, Warner Bros. Pictures Music) currently oversees music for Warner Bros. Pictures feature films.  Some of his past projects include: North Country, ATL, Poseidon, Lake House, Lady in the Water, Happy Feet, Blood Diamond, Music and Lyrics, Nancy Drew, License to Wed, Fred Claus, August Rush, Fool’s Gold, Another Cinderella Story, Nights in Rodanthe, The Clique, Yes Man, Watchmen and Observe and Report.  Upcoming projects include: Happy Feet 2, Spring Breakdown, Sucker Punch and Where the Wild Things Are.

Prior to working at Warner Bros., Darren Higman has worked with major record labels, as well as forming WH Entertainment with Laura Wasserman.  The soundtracks Higman produced have soundscanned over 10 million copies in the US alone.

Julianne Jordan

Julianne Jordan started her music supervision career when director Doug Liman brought her to a little independent movie called Swingers. The film ignited the “swing” craze in the 90’s, spawned a new type of vernacular and pushed the interest in retro swing music into hyperdrive.  The soundtrack quickly went gold and Julianne has not stopped working since.

Julianne has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Doug Liman on all of the films he directed, including Go, The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and the 2008-release of Jumper. They are now working together on Fair Game starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.  Julianne has also supervised such hit films as The Italian Job, Fools Gold and Hotel for Dogs.

In 2007, Julianne supervised the blockbuster family film Alvin and the Chipmunks, where she lent her expertise in helping create an entirely new soundtrack with songs featuring that world-recognized chipmunk sound.  Alvin and the Chipmunks is now a platinum-selling soundtrack and earned Julianne an American Music Award for “Best Soundtrack.”

Julianne is currently working on Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel for Fox, Cats and Dogs 2 for Warner Bros and Sorority Row for Summit Entertainment.

No stranger to performing, Julianne is an accomplished violist who studied her craft at Skidmore College.

Dana Sano

Being an avid fan of both film and music has been the inspiration for Dana’s music supervision career of twenty years.  She began at Creative Artists Agency with Brian Loucks and then moved on to assist the late film producer, Robert F. Colesberry.  Soon thereafter, she became music coordinator for supervision veterans Gary Goetzman and Sharon Boyle on films such as The Silence of the Lambs, The Hot Spot, Point Break and Groundhog Day.  When Goetzman transitioned into Playtone Productions, Sharon and Dana continued working together on the overall PolyGram Filmed Entertainment slate of movies and others including  Kalifornia, Until The End Of The World and Under Siege.

In 1994, Dana was brought into New Line Cinema’s emerging West Coast Music Department.  As Senior Vice President of Music, she has worked with directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, James Gray, Jay Roach and Gary Ross. To date, she has worked on numerous films including  Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery,  Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,  Blade,  Blue Crush, Boogie Nights,  Dan in Real Life,  Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Magnolia,  Make It Happen, Monster in Law,  Seven, Two Lovers, Wag The Dog and We Own the Night.

Recent and upcoming releases include The Burning Plain, Brand New Day and Anvil!  The Story of Anvil! (for which she served as associate producer).  Additionally, she is diversifying the company into film/TV production and development as well as bringing retail brands into music.

Julia Michels

Julia Michels is an independent movie music supervisor who has enjoyed a successful eighteen-year career in the film music industry.  She is currently busy with several projects: First, Ramona & Beezus (Fox), which is based on the renowned Beverly Cleary book series.  She is also working on The Blind Side (Alcon/WB.), an inspiring story based on the celebrated book by Michael Lewis.  Additionally, she is thrilled to be contributing to Tom Ford’s stunning indie film entitled A Single Man.  Julia is also venturing into television with the sassy Lifetime miniseries Maneater, based on Gigi Levangie Granger’s best-selling novel.  She enjoyed recent success at the box office with Marley and Me (Fox), and recently returned from a successful debut of the comedy Spring Breakdown (WB) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.  Other notable theatrical releases include Sex & The City (New Line Cinema), Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (Alcon/WB), the Oscar Nominated (“Best Song”) and Grammy Nominated (“Best Soundtrack”) August Rush (WB) and the 2006 summer blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada (Fox).

Anastasia Brown

Anastasia Brown’s career has been about breaking the industry mold, which she continues to do as President of 821 Entertainment Group.  In just four short years since partnering with 821’s CEO Eric Geadelmann to build the company, the two have created a Nashville-headquartered media company that is financing and producing 16 Heartland feature films over the next six years in partnership with some of Hollywood’s top producers and studios.  Prior to 821, Ms. Brown was music mogul Miles Copeland’s partner in Firstars Management and Ark21 Records where she built the Nashville division.  Her successes included the launch of superstar Keith Urban and the production of the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful music projects with artists such as Sting, Waylon Jennings, Peter Frampton, Leon Russell, Mark Knopfler and others.  Her recent credits include music supervisor of August Rush, which earned both Oscar and GRAMMY nominations for music, and Billy: The Early Years, for which she earned a Dove Award nomination. Over the years, Brown’s accolades have included “25 Most Beautiful,” “Top 40 Most Powerful Under 40,” “Women of Influence,” one of four women featured in Fitness & Muscle’s “Women of Strength” (September 2007) and Variety featured her among their Multitaskers (November 20, 2006). Brown recently penned Make Me a Star and is often interviewed as an industry expert.

Ted Elliot

Academy Award ®-nominated writer Ted Elliott, along with partner Terry Rossio, co-wrote the internationally successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy: The Curse of the Black Pearl (which received five Oscar nominations); Deadman’s Chest  (the highest grossing film of 2006); and At World’s End (People's Choice Awards’ “Favorite Movie”).  They also co-wrote and were Oscar-nominated for Shrek, the first ever Oscar winner for “Best Animated Film.”

Other writing credits include: Aladdin (the top grossing film of 1992); National Treasure: Book of Secrets (story), starring Nicolas Cage; The Mask of Zorro starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones; Little Monsters ;  Small Soldiers; and Godzilla.  In 2006, Elliott also served as executive producer on the romantic thriller Déjà vu, starring Denzel Washington. (Photo by Elliott Marks)

In 1996, Elliott & Rossio became the first writers signed to an overall deal at DreamWorks SKG. Their animated projects there, in addition to Shrek, include Shrek 2 (as Creative Consultants), The Road To El Dorado, featuring Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh; Antz(as Creative Consultants), featuring Woody Allen; and Sinbad (as Creative Consultants), featuring Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Elliott is co-founder of two of the Internet’s leading resources for writers: Wordplay (http://www.wordplayer.com) (with Rossio), and The Artful Writer (http://artfulwriter.com/ (with Craig Mazin).

Alec Berg

Alec Berg’s credits include Seinfeld where he was a writer and executive producer, and Curb Your Enthusiasm where he currently serves as a writer, executive producer and director. He has written for numerous other television series including Late Night with Conan O’Brien. 

His feature film work includes writing the screenplays for The Cat in the Hat (which in spite of what anyone may tell you was made into a terrible film) and Eurotrip (which he produced and co-directed and is excellent).  He has done extensive rewriting as well, having worked on films for Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Alec has been nominated for numerous Emmy awards, a WGA Award and a Razzie (yes, for The Cat in the Hat, it’s really that bad).

Craig Brewer

Craig Brewer is a distinctively regional screenwriter and director known for using music to complement his storytelling.  He studied playwriting at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.  His first feature film, The Poor and Hungry, won “Best Digital Feature” at the Hollywood Film Festival and was acquired by the Independent Film Channel.

Brewer’s second film, Hustle & Flow, was financed by director John Singleton and produced by Stephanie Allain.  Shot in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, Hustle & Flow premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Audience Award for “Best Feature.”  The film went on to secure a record-breaking acquisition deal by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, garner an Academy Award nomination for lead actor Terrence Howard, and win the Academy Award for best original song, Three 6 Mafia’s It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp.

Brewer’s third film, Black Snake Moan, stars Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci.  Driven by a classic and contemporary Blues soundtrack, Black Snake Moan is a Southern gothic tale featuring the Brewer hallmarks of sex, sin and redemption.  The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Paramount Vantage in February of that year.

Currently, Brewer is launching $5 COVER, an online music drama series he created and is dedicated to the Memphis music scene.  The series follows a cast of young musicians as they fight for love, inspiration, and money to pay the rent.

Brewer lives in Memphis, Tennessee with his wife, Jodi, son, Graham and daughter, Wren.

Jeff Gorin

Jeff Gorin is an agent in the Motion Picture Department of William Morris Agency (WMA). Jeff works with writers such as Michael Brandt and  Derek Haas (Wanted, 3:10 to Yuma), Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (The Office, Year One), Marianne and Cormac Wibberley (National Treasure), Pamela Pettler (Corpse Bride, Monster House), David Berenbaum (Elf), Steve Chbosky (Rent, Perks of Being a Wallflower), and Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price (Shrek 3, The Grinch, Who Framed Roger Rabbit).  He also works with directors such as Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno, Thank You for Smoking), Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), the Hughes Brothers (Book of Eli, From Hell, Menace II Society), Cary Fukanaga (Sin Nombre), and Josh Marston (Maria Full of Grace).  Prior to coming to William Morris, Jeff was an agent at ICM. He is a graduate of USC.

Steve McVicker

Steve McVicker has made his living covering the criminal justice system, even as recently as 2003 to 2007, when his coverage of problems at the Houston Police Department's crime lab brought about a $5.2 million independent investigation.  McVicker's focus on law enforcement directed him to the story of Steven Russell, an escape artist and con man extraordinaire, and the basis for his book I Love You Phillip Morris.  Before landing in jail, Russell was running elaborate cons such as scamming $800,000 by faking a resume and securing a job as CFO of Houston company.  While he was in jail, he was thinking up inventive, non-violent ways to escape -- like dying his white prison uniform green and then walking out the front gate posing as a doctor. However, he always gets caught because he comes back for his boyfriend, Phillip Morris.   The book was recently turned into a movie starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. Domestic distribution is expected early next year. 

McVicker continues to work on other book projects, as well as investigative pieces for Texas Watchdog, an on-line investigative news site.   He is still a resident of the Houston Heights area, along with his faithful Australian cattle dog, Spooky.