‘BANNER 4th OF JULY’
PRODUCTION BIOS
MICHAEL VICKERMAN (Executive Producer/Writer) – Michael Vickerman is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended film school at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee before transferring to Columbia Film School. He began working as a professional writer at the age of 20 while working as a production assistant for Sylvester Stallone’s White Eagle Entertainment. Stallone read a screenplay Vickerman had written for a school project and subsequently commissioned him to write scripts for his company, including uncredited rewrites on the International blockbuster “Cliffhanger.”
Shortly after graduation Vickerman was hired by Law Brothers Entertainment to write and develop both a screenplay and children’s books for their toy creation “Kung Fu Kangaroos.” The movie became “Warriors of Virtue,” a $35 million MGM production that was released in 1997. Over the next fifteen years Vickerman has written, directed and/or produced eighteen films, starring such renowned actors as Timothy Hutton (Academy Award® winner for “Ordinary People”), James Cromwell (“L.A. Confidential” and “Babe”), Leighton Meester (“Gossip Girl”), Marcia Cross (“Desperate Housewives”), Gina Gershon (“Bound” and “Face-off”), Chris Malone (“Law & Order SVU”), Dabney Coleman (“9 to 5” and “Tootsie”), Natasha Henstridge (“Species” and “Eli Stone”), David James Elliot (“Jag”), Jennie Garth (“90210”), Michael Gross (“Family Ties”) and others.
In 2002 Vickerman directed “Clover Bend,” starring Robert Urich and David Keith and in 2004 wrote and directed “Warriors of Virtue: Return to Tao,” shot entirely in Beijing, China. He is currently in production on a Hallmark Channel holiday movie.
Michael Vickerman currently resides in Los Angeles.
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JONAS PRUPAS (Executive Producer) - Jonas Prupas is General Manager of Muse Entertainment’s Toronto office overseeing Muse’s TV movies, documentaries and unscripted character-based series developed or filmed in Ontario. His most recent executive producer credits include the television movies: “Christmas with Tucker” for Hallmark Movie Channel, “Home Again” for ABC Family and “The Night Before The Night Before Christmas” for Hallmark Channel.
He is also responsible for helping Ann Harbron, Managing Director of the company’s Factual Division, to identify, develop and manage Muse Entertainment’s unscripted programming slate.
Prupas has worked at Muse since 2008. He has a BA in Economics from McGill University and an MBA in Arts and Media Management from the Schulich School of Business, York University.
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GREG GUGLIOTTA (Executive Producer) – Greg Gugliotta and his Nitelite Entertainment is currently partnered with Jennifer Lopez and her Nuyorican Productions on the upcoming ABC Family series “The Fosters.” Gugliotta and Lopez serve as executive producers on this groundbreaking news series about two moms raising multi-ethnic family of biological and foster kids. Most recently, Gugliotta was the executive producer for ABC Family’s 2013 original holiday movie “Holidaze,” starring Jennie Garth, Cameron Mathison and Mary Kay Place. He has numerous projects in development, including an eight-hour epic event series on “King Tut.”
Gugliotta founded Nitelite Entertainment Inc. in 2000 and has since produced over a dozen films and miniseries for television, including Emmy® nominated “Cheaters” for HBO, starring Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone. Other notable projects include the highly rated “Beautiful Girl” on ABC Family, starring Fran Drescher and Tony Award® winner Marissa Jaret Wonikur, the hit CBS miniseries “Living With The Dead” starring Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Jack Palance and Queen Latifah. He created the successful franchise “Behind The Camera” for NBC with his first film, “The Unauthorized Story Of Three’s Company.”
Gugliotta began his career at The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with the John H. Mitchell internship and then quickly rose through the ranks as a development executive at The Landsburg Company. In 1997, star-maker and industry icon Suzanne de Passe offered Gugliotta his first producing deal where he developed and sold over a dozen projects. Gugliotta graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with honors and was raised in Ridgefield, CT.
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MICHAEL PRUPAS (Executive Producer) - Michael Prupas, President and CEO of Muse Entertainment Enterprises, is a 28-year veteran of the film and television industries. He practiced entertainment law for 20 years, including 15 years as a senior partner at the law firm Heenan Blaikie. Prupas was the head of the firm’s entertainment law practice, which is the largest in Canada.
With his extensive experience in international production financing as well as legal and business affairs, Prupas launched Muse Entertainment Enterprises in June 1998, which has quickly become one of the major independent production companies in Canada. In 2000, he set up Muse Distribution International, which represents Muse Entertainment and other independent Canadian producers at major markets and brings Canadian programs to audiences worldwide.
In 2005, Prupas executive produced two award-winning television mini-series: “Human Trafficking,” about the global reach of sex slavery directed by Christian Duguay and starring Donald Sutherland, Mira Sorvino, Robert Carlyle and Rémy Girard, as well as “Answered by Fire,” about the violent creation of East Timor. Prupas also executive produced three seasons worth of episodes of the award-winning dramatic series “This is Wonderland,” which has been sold for broadcast in over 100 territories.
In 2007, he produced the feature film “The Deal,” starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan,
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which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Other TV movies he has produced or executive produced include “Too Young to Marry,” “I Me Wed,” “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” “Girl’s Best Friend,” “Swamp Devil,” “Infected” and the Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Notes From The Heart Healer.” He has worked with a myriad of successful actors, including Tom Skeritt, Erica Durance, Bruce Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Bill Pullman, Linda Hamilton and Bob Hoskins.
Prupas established the first entertainment law course at McGill University, which he taught from 1997-2002. He coached a minor league baseball team for five years, served on the Board of Trustees of the Banff Television Festival and sits on the Board of Advisors of the Just for Laughs comedy festival and on the finance committee of the Association des producteurs de film et de télévision du Québec.
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JOEL S. RICE (Executive Producer) - Since the early 90s, Joel S. Rice has been producing films for television that do more than just tell a story – they make a difference. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Theater from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in the late 80s, Rice moved to Los Angeles and began acting in a variety of films before returning to school. He earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from UCLA and worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker from 1988 to 1992.
In the early 90s, Rice decided to return to entertainment, forming a production company, WildRice Productions, which immediately began producing films for television which focused on social or personal issues that affect families, relationships or the public as a whole. His 1993 film for CBS, “Bonds of Love,” starred Treat Williams and Kelly McGillis in a love story between a man who is mentally retarded and a woman who is not. WildRice’s “Cries From the Heart” (1994) starred Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert in a courtroom drama about a mother whose seven-year-old autistic son reveals he’s been abused by a guardian at his school, though it’s unclear if he’s telling the truth.
1998’s “About Sarah” for CBS starred Mary Steenburgen as a retarded mother of a teenage girl (Kellie Martin), which tackled the issues of role reversal between children and adult parents with physical or emotional handicaps. The film received a Christopher Award, as well as “Best of the Fest” at the Breckenridge Festival of Film and Steenburgen received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her performance.
In 2000, Rice exec-produced Showtime’s “One Kill,” starring Anne Heche, Sam Shepard and Eric Stoltz. Heche appeared as a female soldier who kills an officer in self defense and then is brought up on charges of murder, dealing with both gun ethics and the treatment of women in a male world. Rice was also the executive producer for the 2007 Nickelodeon comedy “Shredderman Rules.” Rice has worked on numerous Hallmark Channel Original Movies including the “The Note,” “Taking a Chance On Love” and “Notes From The Heart Healer” all starring Genie Francis and Ted McGinley as well as “Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” and “An Old Fashioned Christmas” starring Jacqueline Bisset.
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Rice lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.
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DAVID ANSELMO (Executive Producer) - Sudbury native, David Joseph Anselmo has been in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. After graduating from Laurentian University in Theatre Arts, Anselmo spent the last seven years of his life working in South Korea and most of Asia as an actor and producer. As President of Production for Hideaway Pictures Inc, his newly formed production company in Sudbury, Ontario, he has acquired $4 million in Northern Ontario Heritage Fund money for various projects filmed in the region in 2012.
Anselmo co-produced the feature films “Deadweight” and “The Frozen” and produced “The Seder” and “Subject 6.” For television, Anselmo has served as executive producer on the Hallmark Movie Channel Original “Christmas With Tucker” and co-produced the Hallmark Channel Original Movie “Be My Valentine.”
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DON MCBREARTY (Director) - Over the course of his diverse and distinguished career, Director Don McBrearty has earned much critical acclaim and numerous awards for his work. He won a 1988 Gemini Award for Best Director for the television movie “A Child’s Christmas In Wales,” starring Denholm Elliott, a Peabody Award for the 2002 television movie “The Interrogation Of Michael Crowe,” with Ally Sheedy and Mark Rendall and, in 1984, his short film, “Boys And Girls,” based on the story by Alice Munro, received an Academy Award®.
McBrearty’s credits include the television movie “Luna: Spirit Of The Whale,” starring Adam Beach, several episodes of the period-dramatic series “Murdoch Mysteries,” the series “Heartland,” “The Wild Roses,” the powerful mini-series “October 1970,” Shaftesbury Films’ “Terry,” a television movie starring Shawn Ashmore as Terry Fox and episodes of Shaftesbury’s drama series “ReGenesis.”
Also among his many television credits are the movies “Chasing Freedom,” starring Juliette Lewis, “Mrs. Ashboro’s Cat,” produced by Shaftesbury Films and starring Ellen Page and Michael Ontkean, the dramatic thriller, “The Haunting Of Lisa,” featuring Cheryl Ladd, the fact-based “Butterbox Babies” and the historical dramas “The Arrow,” starring Dan Aykroyd and “Race To Freedom: The Underground Railroad.” McBrearty has also directed several Hallmark Channel Original Movies including “Accidental Friendship,” starring Chandra Wilson, “The Wild Girl” starring Brian Austin Green and Graham Greene and “An Old Fashioned Christmas” starring Jacqueline Bisset.
Well known for his work in episodic television, McBrearty has put his stamp firmly on the Canadian television landscape with credits including the drama series “Blue Murder,” “Power Play,” “ENG” and “The Ray Bradbury Theatre.” He has also worked with many of Canada’s
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young actors on such family and youth series as “Wind At My Back,” “Road To Avonlea,” “In A Heartbeat,” “The Zack Files,” “I Was A Sixth Grade Alien,” “Little Men” and “Emily Of New Moon.”
A native of Dalhousie, New Brunswick, McBrearty now makes his home in Toronto.
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