Filmmakers
Robert Rugan (Director)
Robert Rugan is an award-winning director of motion pictures, commercials, and brand-driven entertainment. His numerous narrative films have garnered him a reputation of visual effects mastery combined with a knack for gripping storytelling. His first indie feature, Alice’s Misadventures in Wonderland, won the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and received a 4 and a half star review from FilmThreat, which commented, “This film could have been a disaster in the hands of another, but director Robert Rugan and crew keep this one crackling with bizarre ideas, a great sense of humor and awesome performances.” Gill Holland, the producer of the indie hit film Hurricane Streets, called it a “creative tour de force, featuring inventive filmmaking.”
Beginning his career as an award-winning editor, Rugan quickly moved into the position of an inferno (flame) artist where he excelled at compositing and visual effects. His post-production experience allowed a transition into directing where he now carries a vast array of experience to his skill set in the art of the narrative.
Commercially, he has worked with such clients as Budweiser, Diet Pepsi, Philips, Verizon Wireless, MTV, IFC, and HBO to name just a few. Earlier this year, Rugan won two coveted Clio Awards, 4 AICP Awards, a Golden Lion at Cannes, and several other awards for his viral advertising campaign for Durex condoms. Recently his short film "Wiley vs. Rhodes" went viral with over a million views online.
In his director’s statement about Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede, Rugan notes that the film “is a story that breaks down the walls of convention encompassing humor, a wild imagination and the heartfelt message that we, as human beings, are connected by fate, but that we motivate our own destiny and that life is always worth living.”
Molly Mayeux (Producer)
(www.dahliastreetfilms.com)
Molly Mayeux, whose career spans more than sixteen years, understands all facets of the motion picture industry, possessing both the creative skills and technical expertise to create an extraordinary product. She is the founder of Dahlia Street Films, a production company based in Los Angeles and New York. Mayeux's producing career began with Savior, starring Dennis Quaid, which was executive produced by Oliver Stone and released by Columbia Pictures. Since that time, her numerous list of credits include The Hi-Line starring Rachel Leigh Cook, Dandelion starring Vincent Kartheiser and Taryn Manning, HBO's Dancing in September, and Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Most recently, Ms. Mayeux produced Rain, currently in worldwide release by Image Entertainment, and I Will Follow, which will be released domestically this Spring. She has several films in post production including Deadline, a crime drama starring Eric Roberts, as well as numerous projects in various stages of development.
Mayeux's last name rhymes with bayou. She grew up in the great state of Louisiana.
John Thomas (Executive Producer)
John Thomas brings a wide range of skills to our team. He’s a law professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law in Connecticut, where he has taught intellectual property law, health law, bioethics, and civil procedure for two decades. He’s also a freelance writer and has published widely on topics such as music, intellectual property law, politics, health policy, juvenile justice, mental health treatment, and international law. He is currently completing a book about the women who built Gibson’s classic World War II guitars, Banner Gibsons: The Story of the Flattop Guitars of 1942-1945 and the Extraordinary Women (and a Few Men) Who Built Them.
Thomas is also a founding board member of and legal counsel to The Buddy Holly Guitar Foundation (www.buddyhollyguitarfoundation.org). The non-profit is building and lending 18 replicas of Buddy Holly’s acoustic guitar to a group of artists for two year terms, renewable at the option of the Foundation’s board of directors. The board includes Buddy’s widow Maria Elena Holly, Graham Nash, and Jackson Browne. The list of artists’ names reads like a who’s who of musicians influenced by Holly and includes Nash and Browne, Peter Frampton, Brian May of Queen, Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, James Burton, who played with Ricky Nelson, Elvis, and Emmylou Harris, and Nokie Edwards of The Ventures. These artists have pledged to use the instruments to raise funds for school music programs around the world. Stay tuned for news about which of these artists will be recording Buddy Holly covers for the Alive and Well soundtrack!
Darren Vancleave (Executive Producer)
(www.handpickedfilms.net)
Darren Vancleave and his partner HandPicked Films principle Michel Shane have established themselves as two of the motion picture industry’s premier independent producers. In the last few years, they have worked with the likes of Stephen Spielberg, Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, and others.
Hand Picked Films produced I, Robot starring Will Smith, released by 20th Century Fox, which smashed box office records when the film grossed over $50 million in its opening weekend. HandPicked is the currently developing the sequel to I, Robot: I, Robot ll staring Will Smith. Hand Picked executive produced Steven Spielberg’s award winning Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Martin Sheen and Christopher Walken. Michel Shane worked aggressively developing the project since acquiring the rights to the book in 1990. Collectively, I, Robot and Catch Me If You Can have grossed nearly one billion dollars. RTG/True Fiction Films just completed principle photography on two films, Not Another, Not Another Movie starring Chevy Chase, Vinny Jones, Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Sciole, and Michael Madsen, and Blood: A Butchers Tale starring Aaron Douglas, Jennifer Sciole, Emily Perkins, Kim Coates, and Christa Campbell. Blood will be the first film in the horror genre to use technology similar to 300 and Sin City.
RTG/True Fiction is currently developing five feature films including Shrinking Charlotte, Buddy Holly is Alive and Well, Beneath, Crimson, and Lockbox. Hand Picked Films is also currently developing two feature films for the youth to preteen market. First is Band on the Run, which is based on the “boy band” image and popularity among the teen youth. This preteen oriented project is poised to break new ground in sponsorship and cross promotion that will launch the career of a real band the producers are creating for this project. Slated later in the year is Hand Picked Films’ first animated feature film, The Black Belt Club, based on the best-selling Scholastic children’s book series by Dawn Barnes and Marvel Comics’ illustrator Bernard Chang.
