‘THE NATIONAL TREE’
PRODUCTION BIOS
GERALD W. ABRAMS (Executive Producer) – Gerald W. Abrams began his television career in 1965 with WCBS TV as an account executive, and worked his way up through CBS Television national sales to head the West Coast Sales Department in 1971. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed General Sales Manager of KCBS, the CBS-owned station in Los Angeles.
In 1973, Abrams joined The Jozak Company as Vice President of Creative Affairs, and segued into his producing career by producing the Theater Presentation "The Secret Life of John Chapman." While with Jozak, a few of the projects Abrams executive-produced were "James Dean, Portrait Of A Friend," "Red Alert," the Emmy®-winning "The Defection Of Simas Kudirka" and the ABC series "Julie Farr, M.D."
Abrams formed his own company, Cypress Point Productions, in 1978. Through Cypress Point, he executive-produced "Flesh And Blood," "Letters From Frank," "The Gift" "Act Of Love," "Berlin Tunnel 21," "Marian Rose White," the CBS series "Cutter To Houston," "Found Money," "Scorned And Swindled," and the Emmy®-winning "Florence Nightingale" and "A Woman Called Golda." In addition to his television credits, Abrams was also the executive producer of "Hearts of Fire," a theatrical film for Lorimar, starring Bob Dylan and Rupert Everett.
Abrams formed Phoenix Entertainment Group with Gerald Isenberg in July of 1985. In February of 1989, Phoenix was acquired by The Hearst Corporation and renamed Hearst Entertainment Productions, where Abrams served as the Co-Chairman.
Abrams was the producer of the four-hour miniseries "Monte Carlo," shot entirely on location in France, and executive-producer of "A Father's Revenge," which was filmed in Berlin. Also in '89, he executive-produced the two-hour movie "Jekyll & Hyde,” starring Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd, filmed on location in England, which was followed by "Daughter Of Darkness," starring Anthony Perkins, which was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Abrams also executive produced the mini-series “Family of Spies,” starring Powers Boothe and Lesley Ann Warren, for which she was nominated for an Emmy.
Abrams served on the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society from 1982 to 1984, and has remained a very active alumnus of The Pennsylvania State University, having served on the Alumni Council and on the Board of Advisors to The College of Communications. In 1984, he was made an Alumni Fellow and received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1986. Additionally, he serves on the Alumni Board of Directors for The College of Communications. The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors honored Abrams with the Producer’s Award for 2004.
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Abrams executive produced “Black and Blue,” based on Pulitzer Prize winning author Anna Quindlen’s best selling novel, as well as “Nuremberg,” a four-hour mini-series for TNT, which was nominated for both a Golden Globe and Emmy, and “Second Honeymoon” starring Roma Downey and Tim Matheson for CBS. Following the critical success of those films, Abrams executive produced the Hallmark Channel’s “A Christmas Visitor.”
In 2003, Abrams executive produced “44 Minutes,” the FX Network’s highest rated show to date, as well as the Emmy winning “Out of the Ashes” for Showtime.
In March of 2004, ABC aired “The Mystery of Natalie Wood” executive produced by Abrams and based on Suzanne Finstad’s biography of Natalie Wood. In 2005, he served as executive producer for “See Arnold Run” about the historic California recall election, and produced “Four Minutes” starring Christopher Plummer, chronicling Roger Bannister’s feat of being the first to run one mile in under four minutes. Abrams also served as executive producer on two Hallmark Channel films in 2008, “Daniel’s Daughter” and “Charlie and Me.”
Abram’s wife, Carol, is a Peabody Award winning producer and co-author of “Shared Memories.” They have two children, J.J. Abrams, who has written and produced the motion picture “Regarding Henry,” wrote “Forever Young,” “Armageddon,” directed “Mission Impossible III,” “Cloverfield” and “Star Trek,” and is the creator and Executive Producer of the television series “Lost”, “Felicity,” “What About Brian,” “Alias” and “Fringe:” and Tracy Abrams, a screenwriter who has written for series television.
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SUSAN MURDOCH (Executive Producer) - Susan Murdoch is President of QVF Inc. and Vice President of Pebblehut, one of the major producers of film and television product in Canada. Over the past 25 years, Murdoch produced or production-managed numerous feature and television movies as well as more than 200 hours of episodic television including the “Nero Wolfe Mysteries,” “Veritas,” “The City,” “Kung Fu – The Legend Continues,” “War of the Worlds” and “Adderly.” She has been involved with such significant Canadian feature films as “Black Robe,” directed by Bruce Beresford and “Camilla,” starring the late Jessica Tandy.
In 2008, Murdoch served as executive producer on two Hallmark Channel films, “Daniel’s Daughter” and “Charlie and Me.” She is also currently serving as producer for the feature film “Juggler.”
In addition to her producing activities, Murdoch has been active in several industry-related organizations. She is currently on the Co-Chair of FilmOntario, an industry stakeholder consortium, and is also Co-Chair, along with Mayor David Miller, of the Toronto Film Board.
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COTTY CHUBB (Executive Producer) - After successfully building a small business in New York publishing fine art photography, Cotty Chubb has worked in Los Angeles as a producer and senior production executive since the mid-80s, with stints at Pressman Film Corp. from 1988 to 1992, from 1994 to 2003 at Alphaville, and at Groundswell Productions in 2006-2007. Collectively in those 16 years, he supervised the development and production of several dozen films besides his own. Presently, he is a producer on his own account, currently in post- production on “Unthinkable,” directed by Gregor Jordan and starring Samuel L. Jackson. Chubb produced eight movies previous to “Unthinkable:” “Believe In Me,” starring Jeffrey Donovan, Samantha Mathis, Bruce Dern & Heather Matarrazzo; “Dark Blue” starring Kurt Russell and directed by Ron Shelton; “Pootie Tang,” with Chris Rock; “Eve's Bayou,” Kasi Lemmons' debut picture, with Samuel L. Jackson; “Hoffa,” starring Jack Nicholson and directed by and co- starring Danny DeVito; Charles Burnett's much acclaimed “To Sleep With Anger;” “Waiting for the Light” with Shirley MacLaine and Ter Garr; and “Cherry 2000,” starring Melanie Griffith.
Chubb has also served as an executive producer, most recently on Ed Harris’s “Appaloosa,” starring Harris, Viggo Mortenson, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons; Michael Almereyda’s “Tonight At Noon,” in post-production, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lauren Ambrose, Connie Nielsen and Rutger Hauer; and Alex Proyas’s “The Crow,” starring Brandon Lee. He was associate producer on the Taviani brothers' “Good Morning, Babylon.”
In television he was executive producer of four TV films: “Banshee,” “Everyday People,” “Don't Look Back” and “Avalanche.” He was an executive producer of the four-hour mini-series “Attila,” which aired in 2001.
Chubb also produced “William Eggleston’s Stranded In Canton,” a documentary created from videotapes made in 1973 by the noted American photographer William Eggleston, which had a premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005 and is currently featured in the traveling retrospective of Eggleston’s work that began in November 2008 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Chubb is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in the Producer Branch. He is also the executive director of the Eggleston Artistic Trust. Chubb is married with two teen-age daughters.
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GRAEME CAMPBELL (Director) – Graeme Campbell has been writing and directing movies and television for more than 20 years. He started off making documentaries, but got his first break with the controversial feature “Murder One,” released by Miramax in 1988. The film is an uncompromising portrayal of a horrific crime spree gone wrong.
This led to another controversial true crime story, “Deadly Betrayal: The Bruce Curtis Story,”
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about the poisonous friendship between two teens. It caused Scott Watkins of the New York Times to write “Through the creative and brilliant direction of Graeme Campbell, the viewer is taken on a roller coaster ride through hell. Using flashbacks, tense courtroom drama and frighteningly vivid jail scenes, Campbell and cast tell a riveting story.”
Although known in his early career for his handling of dark subject matter, Campbell has directed films in many genres, lately many uplifting ones. He has a passion for music and music stories which lead to “Out of Sync,” a musical comedy for VH-1, and nearly half of the episodes of “Instant Star” for The N over the last four seasons.
Campbell’s gift with actors is evident in such films as “Unforgivable,” starring the late John Ritter. He has worked with some of the best actors in the business, such as George C. Scott, Ellen Page, Rachel McAdams, William Shatner, Mercedes Ruehl and Elisha Cuthbert. In 2008, Campbell directed “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” for Hallmark Channel, which starred Jacqueline Bisset and reunited him with Tatiany Maslany and Kristopher Turner, two of the cast of “Instant Star.” Other recent work includes “Everest,” an action packed four hour mini series about the first Canadians’ harrowing assent of Mt. Everest in 1982, four episodes of “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” and two episodes of the Canadian series “The Best Years.”
Campbell lives in Toronto with his wife Gina, and two children, Max and Emilie.
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J.B. WHITE (Teleplay) – J.B. White is a screenwriter who has written in almost every genre, including drama, comedy, action, true crime, docudrama, horror and suspense. He has written features for New Line and MGM and movies and miniseries for NBC, CBS, TBS, USA, Lifetime, FX, and VH1, including “Peter Benchley's The Beast,” starring William Petersen and “Guilty Hearts” starring Marcia Gay Harden and Treat Williams. He wrote “The 12 Days of Christmas Eve” for executive producer Jean Abounader. Earlier this year, a TV movie based on his script “The Wedding Dance” (later titled “Come Dance At My Wedding”) premiered on Hallmark Channel.
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LLOYD FONVIELLE (Screen Story) – Lloyd Fonvielle has been writing and directing since the mid-1980s, with his most high-profile credit being a writer for Brendan Frasier’s 1999 blockbuster, “The Mummy.” Other writing credits include “Cherry 2000,” “The Lords of Discipline,” and “The Bride,” for which he also served as associate producer.
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