Congratulations to our friend and colleague Nancy Nigrosh who Joins The Partos Company To Head Motion Picture & TV Division!

Nancy Nigrosh, the industry veteran who has worked repping directors and writers as a talent and literary agent at Innovative Artists and running the lit department at Gersh, has joined The Partos Company. She has been tapped to head the Motion Picture & Television department at the Santa Monica-based agency, which is known for its representation of artists behind the camera.

Nigrosh previously ran the consulting firm Literary Business and taught at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program. During her career she has repped clients including helmers Kathryn Bigelow, Peter Bogdanovich, Chris Eyre, John Cameron Mitchell and Leslye Headland and scribes Barry Morrow, Amanda Brown, Luke Davies, Albert Magnoli and Stuart Beattie.

Partos, run by Walter Partos, reps clients including costume designers Albert Wolsky (Bugsy), Natalie O’Brien (Honey Boy) and Heidi Bivens (Mid90s); cinematographers Scott Cunningham (Kendrik Lamar’s “Humble”) and Maxime Alexandre; and producer Hartley Gorenstein (The Boys).

“Every agency has the same information, knows the same people and pursues the same projects,” Partos said. “Nancy has an incredible eye for material and, at the end of the day, choosing the right material is the difference between a great career and a good one. It is an honor to collaborate with her.”


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Deadline Hollywood: Charlie Matthau Readying ‘The Book Of Leah’ With Armand Assante

Filmmaker Charlie Matthau is close to finishing the independent feature The Book of Leah starring Armand Assante, which tells the story of a teenage rape victim who rebuilds herself as a karate fighter and seeks revenge on her attacker.

Brianna Joy Chomer plays Leah Gold, who after sneaking into a night

Getty Courtesy of Stan Rosenfield & Associates

club with her friends, is sexually assaulted in 1980s Chicago. The police do not take her case seriously, trying to blame Leah for being a minor, and the way she dressed. Her high-class family, embarrassed by the incident, sends Leah to a girls school, where she ultimately meets her uncle, played by four-time Golden Globe nominee Assante, who is a Holocaust survivor.

More than another female Karate Kid film, there are layers in The Book of Leah which echo a lot of what we’ve read lately about sexual assault; how alleged victims like Christine Blasey Ford and Patti Davis remained quiet about their incidents for several decades for many reasons. The Book of Leah puts a spotlight on the injustice that rape victim weather; the disbelief some face by those in authority after pointing a finger at their attackers.
In the film, Assante’s Adam Siegel forms a strong bond with Leah and builds her into a karate champ. Also starring in the pic is jazz singer and pianist Freddy Cole in his first feature role as a musical mentor to Leah, Kate Linder as Leah’s mother, Ty Olwin as the love interest, and Melanie Neilan as Leah’s friend.

Based on a true story, The Book of Leah was written by Leslie Neilan and Alan Roth. Neilan also produces with Kenneth Atchity. Matthau’s directorial credits include such pics as the 2012 feature take of Elmore Leonard’s Freaky Deaky starring Christian Slater, Billy Burke and Crispin Glover as well as 1995’s The Grass Harp based on the Truman Capote novel in which Matthau directed his Oscar-winning father Walter Matthau, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. The Grass Harp won best English Language Film at the 1996 Palm Springs Film Festival.

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Stephen Gyllenhaal To Pen, Direct ‘The Kennedy Detail’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | 

Stephen Gyllenhaal has signed as screenwriter and director of The Kennedy Detail, which focuses on the men of the Secret Service protective detail assigned to President John F. Kennedy. The project is targeted for a November 2013 release, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. “This is the project of a lifetime and I could not be more excited to be part of it,” said Gyllenhaal. “Everyone knows how this story ends, but the true stories told through the eyes of this extraordinary band of brothers, from JFK’s election to that awful day in Dallas, have never been told. It is time to share their perspective with the world”.  Gyllenhaal has begun work on the script with his research including interviews with many of the surviving members of President Kennedy’s protective detail and their family members. The film will be based on the New York Times best-selling book The Kennedy Detail by former agent Gerald Blaine and award-winning journalist Lisa McCubbin, with a foreword by former agent Clint Hill. Hill has signed as a special advisor to the project, and McCubbin and Hill will be associate producers. The Kennedy Detail is being produced by Atchity Entertainment International (AEI) of Los Angeles, Atchity and Chi-Li Wong producers, and Ramos & Sparks Group of Tallahassee, Florida, with Richard Ramos and Rober