Allison Abbate - Writer/ Director/ ProducerALLISON ABBATE is the BAFTA-Award winning producer of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Iron Giant and Executive Producer of The Lego Movie. She is also an accomplished writer and director of motion picture projects in both the US and UK.
Allison has enjoyed a successful career by working with the industry’s most innovative directors on some of the most compelling films to be released in the modern animation era. A native of New York, Abbate moved to Hollywood and began her career by working on several of Disney’s most beloved animated films including The Rescuers Down Under and the cult classic Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. In 1996 Abbate joined Warner Bros. Pictures, as co-producer of animation on the international hit feature film, Space Jam and in 1999 went on to win an Annie, a BAFTA and a Los Angeles Film Critics award as producer of Brad Bird’s internationally acclaimed directorial debut, Iron Giant. In 2000, Following up on her success on Iron Giant, Allison formed Laurel Cottage Productions, a production company dedicated to the writing and development of both Live Action and Animated film properties. Her first project, as a writer/director is a film based on the novel Two Toes, The Coyote Legend of Green River by Preston Q. Hale. Abbate’s next move was to London in 2004, where she set up an animation production facility at 3 Mills Studios in London’s east end. Here she developed and produced the haunting musical feature, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. All three films were nominated for BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Awards. Allison most recently served as Executive Producer of Warner Bros’ box office hit The Lego Movie. While still in the UK, Allison formed a partnership with Ealing Studios where she developed two directorial vehicles, an adaptation of Melanie Benjamin’s The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb as well as an original WWII horror film V3. She is presently working with pop superstars, The Pet Shop Boys, adapting a ballet they created based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Most Incredible Thing as an animated feature film. She will produce and direct. In 2012, Abbate moved back to the US and partnered with Tony Cervone to produce and direct original animated feature films. In 2013, they developed a project for Jim Henson Studios called Time Dogs and are presently in negotiations with Producer Ted Field for her to write, produce and direct an adaptation of the popular British children’s book series The Dark Lord. |
Jean Hale Coleman - Producer/ActressJEAN HALE COLEMAN is an actress and producer who has stared in such films as In like Flint, The St. Valentines day Massacre and The Oscar. She started her career as a model and a contract player for Universal, guest starring in over 60 television shows. She then went on to have a major motion picture contract with Richard Zanuck at 20th Century Fox.
Jean was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised in Darien, Connecticut. Her father Stanton G. Hale was a major corporate leader of Morman heritage, who's grandfather Soloman Hale owned a ranch with Brigham Young. She was educated at the University of Utah, majored in ballet and afterwards attended the Skidmore College for Women in N.Y. She went on to graduate from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in N.Y.C where she studied with Sidney Pollack and Martha Graham alongside fellow students James Caan, Jerry Weintraub and Dabney Coleman. Jean’s theatrical credits include, starring opposite Buck Henry and Tom Poston in The Male Animal, and opposite Nancy Walker in Everybody loves Opal. She has had a lengthy history in the Film and Television industry both as an actress and producer developing and marketing various film projects as well as numerous movies of the week. She married actor Dabney Coleman and had three children who are all accomplished singer songwriters. In 2000, Jean acquired film rights to The Coyote Legend of Green River written by her uncle Preston Q. Hale. This true story is based on his experience during the depression as a young trapper in Eastern Utah, employed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition to this project she has a slate of films in development including Altered Ego based on an event in her own life and Born and Raised, a true crime story. |
Srdjan Stakic - Producer |
SRDJAN STAKIĆ was born former Yugoslavia. He moved to the US at age of 16
alone, shortly after the war in Bosnia started. He finished high school and brought his family into the country two years later. Upon completing undergraduate studies, Srdjan enrolled in masters and later doctorate degrees at Columbia University studying health education, specializing in media. Srdjan was recruited by the UN while in graduate school and started working on entertainment media for social development in developing countries. He established and coordinated a partnership between the UN and MTV Networks International. This is when he truly understood the power of media and had fell in love with the creative aspect of production. He moved to Los Angeles and produced two short films, after which he was accepted into the Peter Stark Program. Srdjan continued to consult for the UN while interning at the Mark Gordon Company and Universal Pictures (in production finance and creative development). After graduating, Srdjan served as an in house line producer to Justin Lin’s [Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast & Furious] YOMYOMF Network. Independently, he produced one feature film, starring Anthony LaPaglia (currently in last stages of post-production) and he recently wrapped on a feature documentary film shot in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. |
Julian McMahon - ProducerJULIAN MCMAHON is a Golden Globe nominated actor/producer best known for his roles in “Charmed” and “Nip/Tuck”. He also starred in the NBC drama “Profiler”.
McMahon was featured in “Fantastic Four” and the sequel, “Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer” and can also be seen in “Premonition” opposite Sandra Bullock. Other film credits include “Red”, and “You’re Not You” with Hillary Swank. He is currently shooting “Childhood’s End” written by Oscar nominee Arthur C. Clarke. Julian was a producer on the critically acclaimed documentary “Long Shot”, and is also developing and producing “The Chairman” for Spike, and two books, “Funny Boys” and “The Womanizer”, written by Warren Adler who also wrote “War of the Roses”. Charlie Loventhal - ProducerCHARLIE LOVENTHAL was one a writer and casting director for Brian DePalma’s “Home Movies”, starring Kirk Douglas, Vincent Gardenia and Keith Gordon. Loventhal produced a comedy “The First Time”. David Denby (New York Magazine) declared it “enormously entertaining”, and TV guide listed it a top ten romantic date movie. Charlie also directed “My Demon Lover” for New Line and “Mr. Write” starring Paul Reiser. He also wrote and directed “Meet Market” starring Julian McMahon and Elizabeth Berkley. He was recently a producer on “Long Shot”, the story of Kevin Laue, the only person to ever play division 1 college basketball with just one arm.
Mr. Loventhal also directed an award-winning documentary for the Special Olympics. His company developed and produced “Deuces Wild” starring Matt Dillon and Stephen Dorff for MGM. Currently, he is developing and producing with Julian McMahon the Warren Adler novels “Funny Boys” and “The Womanizer”. |