MRB Productions Inc., until now best known for creating slick promos and openers for the Super Bowl, ESPN’s X Games and “Monday Night Football,” is making the jump into mainstream fare by way of the local mall.
Last week, the small production company began shooting a pilot for ABC Family called “The Other Mall,” a snide comedy about an also-ran shopping center. Completed in four days at Burbank Town Center, “The Other Mall” has a humor sensibility similar to NBC’s hit comedy series “The Office.”
“The one thing about my job is that it’s pretty much the same, whether we’re doing sports promos, feature films or television,” said Matt Brady, MRB’s chief executive. “We still secure locations, crews, lights and cameras. The thing about television and film work is that there is a lot more accolades and recognition that goes with it.”
MRB is still hard at work on the promos, teasers and openers for the upcoming football season, but the Emmy-winning production company is also making its move into the film world.
The company recently completed the rock ‘n’ roll documentary “I Trust You to Kill Me.” The film is about Long Beach independent band Rocco DeLuca & the Burden. One scene from the film has already drawn a good deal of attention via the Internet. In it, Kiefer Sutherland, who is the band’s road manager, drunkenly body slams a Christmas tree in a London hotel lobby. The documentary makes its mainstream debut next month and will play at Landmark Theaters locally, Brady said. He downplayed the “24” star’s role.
“It’s actually not as dramatic a moment as you might expect,” Brady said of the lobby assault on what appears to be a Douglas fir. “He’s really the nicest man on the planet very polite and respectful.”
Viacom, Klasky Csupo Split
Klasky Csupo Inc. and Viacom Inc. are parting ways at end of the month, when a decade-old deal between the animation studio and Nickelodeon expires.
Klasky Csupo is the outfit behind a string of cartoon hits that helped Nickelodeon rise to youth prominence, such as “The Rugrats” and “As Told by Ginger.”
The animation studio is transitioning into feature films and more work in computer-generated imagery, and already has a slew of projects in the works including co-founder Gabor Csupo’s recent work on “Bridge to Terabithia.” The transition has meant a leaner operation, so Klasky Csupo sold its Sunset Boulevard studios early this year for $40 million, and is now at less than 100 employees from a one-time high of 500.
This 10-year partnership seems to be ending on a higher note than another Viacom marriage that went south last week. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone announced Paramount Pictures would end its 14-year relationship with actor Tom Cruise’s production company, blaming what he called Cruise’s increasingly odd behavior over the last year.
Parents Rate Ad Buyers
Four Los Angeles companies have made the Parents Television Council’s list of “Top Ten Best and Worst Advertisers.” We’re not talking the quality of the commercials here; we’re talking about the shows the companies choose to pay for ad time on.
The PTC’s list is based on each company’s prime time network television ad buys between October 2005 and May 2006, and ranks advertisers according to how frequently they sponsor wholesome, family-oriented television shows as opposed to those containing sexually graphic, violent or profane material.
At the top of the heap of the “best” advertisers were: Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the Campbell Soup Co., Disney, Ford Motor Co., Cingular Wireless, Altria Group, DreamWorks, Schering-Plough Corp., Darden Restaurants Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp.
Ranked “worst” were: General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, Target Corp., GlaxoSmithKline, Nissan Motors, American Express Inc., Apple Computers Inc. and Circuit City Stores.
Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.