EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) – a Multiple Emmy® Award Winner, Bruce D
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‘NORMAN ROCKWELL’S SHUFFLETON’S BARBERSHOP’ PRODUCTION BIOS BRUCE JOHNSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) – A multiple Emmy® Award winner, Bruce D. Johnson has been a writer, producer and studio executive in Hollywood for over 25 years. During that time, he has produced and delivered over 40 movies. In 2012 he developed and produced “Finding Mrs. Claus,” an original Lifetime Movie starring Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, Will Sasso and Laura Vandervoort. A romantic comedy set in Las Vegas and the North Pole, the film was one of Lifetime’s highest rated movies of 2012. Johnson is known as a specialist in producing high quality family entertainment. Just out of film school, he began his career making documentaries, including an Emmy®-nominated documentary about the legendary animation team of Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna. As an executive producer at Hanna-Barbera in the mid- 1980s, Johnson supervised a renaissance of classic remakes at the renowned animation studio, overseeing production of such iconic properties as “The Jetsons,” “YogiBear,” “Jonny Quest” and many others, reporting directly to Joe Barbera. In seven years, he rose from director of development to executive vice president & general manager, ultimately managing all of the businesses and production at the studio. When Turner purchased Hanna-Barbera, Johnson was the only executive retained. Working directly with the team in Atlanta, Johnson was responsible for integrating Hanna-Barbera into Turner’s worldwide distribution system and helped launch the Cartoon Network in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Returning to his producing roots, Johnson founded PorchLight Entertainment in 1994 and built the company into a premier family entertainment company, supervising the development and production of over 35 TV movies for such networks as Lifetime, Showtime, Family Channel, Disney Channel, Pax, NBC and Animal Planet. Among his many TV movie credits are “The Trialof Old Drum” (Animal Planet), “Stranger in Town” (Showtime) and “Night of the Twister” (Family Channel/ABC Family). The latter movie was the highest rated movie of all time on Family Channel. He has also produced multiple series for PBS, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, BBC, CBC and others. In 2011, Johnson formed Foxfield Entertainment, LLC, an independent production company based in Los Angeles and focused exclusively on development and production. A native of Minneapolis, Johnson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.A. degree in English. In 2002 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, with studies in film, English and education. Between college and graduate school, he was a mountain climber and guide in Rocky Mountain National Park, summiting several of Colorado’s “fourteeners.” These days, Johnson is an avid weekend tennis player and occasional golfer. He’s married and has one child. ### JOHN WILDER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER) – John Wilder has written and/or produced nearly 400 hours of primetime television dramas on network and cable and has been (more) HALLMARK MOVIE CHANNEL/ ‘NORMAN ROCKWELL’S SUFFLETON’S BARBERSHOP’ – Production Bios – Page 2 commissioned to write theatrical features by Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, TriStar, Orion, 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. He has received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Long-Form Teleplay and received WGA nominations for Best Long-Form Series and Best Episodic Drama. He has received two TV Academy Emmy® nominations for Best Dramatic Series and received Golden Globe® nominations for Best Picture Made For Television and for Best Drama Series. He has received the Western Writers of America Awards for Best Western Screenplay and Best Western Television Film, two Western Heritage Awards for Best Television Film; and the Chicago International Film Festival Award for Best Television Series. He had the honor and privilege of mounting the biggest television event of its time, the epic twenty six hour mini-series of James Michener’s “Centennial” for NBC, adapting the best- selling novel and Executive Producing the film for Universal Pictures. He worked with Larry McMurtry to write and Executive Produce a sequel to Mr. McMurtry’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, creating the seven hour mini-series “Return To Lonesome Dove” for CBS. Wilder adapted and Executive Produced John Jakes’ best-selling novel, The Bastard, as the premier film for the ground-breaking OPT channels, was chosen again by James Michener to adapt and Executive Produce his best-selling novel Texas for ABC, was selected by best-selling author Anne Rice to adapt her novel The Feast of All Saints, which he Executive Produced for Showtime and adapt her biggest selling novel, The Witching Hour, as a ten hour mini-series for Warner Brothers Television and NBC. He created and Executive Produced two critically- acclaimed series for Warner Brothers, “The Yellow Rose” (NBC) and “Spenser: For Hire” (ABC), on which he teamed with the Dean of Crime Fiction, Robert B. Parker. He first came to prominence as a writer/producer/director while guiding the top-rated, critically- -acclaimed police drama “The Streets of San Francisco” (ABC) starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas and later wrote, directed and Executive Produced “Norman Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties” (ABC), which starred Jason Robards, Eva Marie Saint and Clair Trevor. He recently adapted The Smoke Jumper by best- selling author Nicholas Evans for Universal and developing “Beyond Winning,” a theatrical feature based on the life of legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden. Wilder graduated from UCLA with a BA in English Literature in 1963. He lives with his wife and granddaughter in Santa Barbara, CA, where he is Writer in Residence and Adjunct Professor of English At Westmont College. ### FERNANDO SZEW (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) – MarVista Entertainment founding partner Fernando Szew serves as CEO, spearheading company strategy and overseeing operations. Prior to the formation of MarVista, Szew served as vice president of sales and marketing at his father’s distribution company, Whamo Entertainment, joining him in 1999 at the age of 23. It (more) HALLMARK MOVIE CHANNEL/ ‘NORMAN ROCKWELL’S SUFFLETON’S BARBERSHOP’ – Production Bios – Page 3 was Szew’s vision to transform the company from a distributor of third-party produced programming to a production and distribution company with a worldwide presence. By 2003, Szew and his father had aligned with current partners Michael D. Jacobs and George F. Port to launch MarVista Entertainment, a fundamental springboard towards that goal. Szew serves as executive producer of the primetime teen drama “Beyond the Break,” which debuted in the U.S. in June 2006 on MTV Network’s The N and several television movies including, “Night of Terror” for Lifetime Television and “Christmas in Boston” for ABC Family. During his tenure at Whamo, Szew expanded the company’s operations by forming strategic distribution alliances with such companies as Cambium Entertainment (Canada), Burbank Animation Studios (Australia), VICTORY Film Production & Distribution (Germany) and VCI (UK). Additionally, Szew was responsible for distributing internationally such noteworthy entertainment franchises as “Theodore Tugboat,” “The Three Stooges” and Art Clokey’s “Gumby.” Szew launched Whamo’s European operation in Barcelona, Spain in 2001. Prior to joining Whamo, Szew served as manager of international commerce for CEPA (G&Z), then one of Argentina’s principal exporters and the country’s largest export-based meat packing company with over 1500 employees. Szew was directly responsible for the sale of higher margin products with sales of over US$ 40 million p.a. Szew was in charge of leading a round of negotiations with Outback Steakhouse, an important worldwide restaurant chain, where he established and implemented innovative business and revenue models for the company. Szew is an alumnus of the Huntsman International Studies and Business Program’s first graduating class at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a dual-degree with double concentration in management and marketing at the prestigious Wharton School of Business. ### MITCHELL GALIN (PRODUCER) – Mitchell Galin is a seasoned multiple award winning producer in the film, television and theater mediums. Through his over thirty year career he has developed and/or overseen the production of ten features, over 25 television movies and mini-series, three series, six documentaries and two theatre productions. Galin recently completed the feature “Apostles of Comedy; Onwards & Upwards” which will be released in May 2013, the feature documentary “Survivor” and is currently in post-production on the feature documentary “Living Hope.” Among the television projects Galin is developing, is a series pilot for the reboot of his series “Tales for The Darkside” for the CW, “Creepshow TV” and “Petulant Whimsy” with RelativityREAL and the documentary “Woman of Magdalene” with the Odyssey Networks. Among the feature projects Galin is currently developing and packaging is the comedy “Monster Trucker” and a World War I drama “The Last Christmas,” to be directed by Pat O’Connor. (more) HALLMARK MOVIE CHANNEL/ ‘NORMAN ROCKWELL’S SUFFLETON’S BARBERSHOP’ – Production Bios – Page 4 Recently Galin produced Hallmark Channel’s “The Shunning,” a television presentation pilot “LifeAfter,” the award winning documentaries “Journey to Everest” and “Honoring a Father Dream: The Sons of Lwala” and developed the pilots “Heartland” for