AGBO Innovation, led by recently appointed
Chief Innovation Officer Jake Aust,
expands and advances company's tech-enabled creativity
LOS
ANGELES, May 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AGBO, the
Russo Brothers' artist-led media company, today announced the
formation of a new Innovation department that strategically expands
AGBO's storytelling capacity, blending its physical and virtual
production capabilities. Under the new framework, AGBO's
best-in-class technologists will build proprietary creative tools
for storytellers, fostering production innovation and cost
efficiency for content across diverse platforms.
The group will consist of three verticals – production
technology, immersive technology, and creative – and will be led by
Jake Aust, who was recently promoted
to Chief Innovation Officer. With a 20-year career as a producer on
titles such as "The Office," "Community," Cherry, and
executive producer on The Gray Man, and most recently
serving as AGBO's President of Physical Production, Aust has an
extensive history in post-production and a track record for
harnessing the power of evolving technologies.
The establishment of AGBO's Innovation team comes at a time of
accelerated growth for the company across virtual storytelling and
linear media landscapes. Recently, AGBO added to its executive
ranks with the appointments of storytelling visionary Donald Mustard, the director of Fortnite, and
business strategist Chris Brearton,
the chief architect of MGM's $8.45
billion sale to Amazon, as Partners, signaling the company's
commitment to building the infrastructure for a studio of the
future. Spearheading this transformation is Chief Creative Officer
Angela Russo-Otstot, whose expertise
in fostering innovation and cultivating captivating narratives will
continue to shape AGBO's growth.
The strategic expansion enables AGBO and its creative partners
to access the company's full suite of innovative tools at every
stage of the development, production, and post-production
processes.
The newly established group will be led by industry veterans
reporting into Aust:
- Glenn Derry, President of
Production Technology – One of Hollywood's leading technological innovators,
Derry is a longtime practitioner of cutting-edge tools at the
forefront of modern filmmaking. As the chief technological
architect on films such as Avatar, The Jungle Book,
Real Steel, and Minority Report, Derry introduced the
concept of "virtual production" to the film and gaming industries.
As President of Production Technology, Derry will further develop
and expand AGBO's virtual production pipeline to enhance artists'
storytelling capabilities and optimize production economics across
mediums.
- Josh Andersen, President
of Immersive Technology – Andersen joins AGBO from Epic Games,
where he served as lead programmer and a vision-holding leader in
game development. Over more than a decade at Epic, Andersen steered
the development of blockbuster video game franchises such as
Fortnite, Shadow Complex, and Infinity Blade
and was instrumental in metagame design and critical success
factors on innovative mobile games. Andersen's Immersive Technology
team will be fully integrated within AGBO and support expressions
of its assets across different mediums.
- Ryan McNeely and
John Cranston, Creative
Directors – As co-founders of the state-of-the-art virtual
production studio VisualCreatures, McNeely and Cranston have deep
experience working with high-profile companies like Netflix, HBO,
Hulu, Allstate, Apple, and Epic Games. In 2023, VisualCreatures was
acquired by AGBO, resulting in a natural synergy of the pair's
creator-driven ethos. Now as Creative Directors, McNeely and
Cranston will collaborate to expand the boundaries of artist-driven
storytelling powered by cutting-edge technology.
"Through years of close collaboration with Ryan, John, and Josh
at Epic Games, I've witnessed firsthand the dedication and
ingenuity they bring to every project. With Jake at the helm, this
team will fulfill AGBO's long-term ambition of developing wholly
original IP from scratch in-house," said AGBO Partner Donald
Mustard. "Together, we're forging a dynamic, silo-less pipeline
designed to seamlessly share assets among expressions that exist in
different media and different narratives – a pivotal juncture in
our evolution as a modern studio."
"Jake, Glenn, Josh, and the entire Innovation team will lead a
strategic evolution of our brand. They bring expertise from the
forefront of bold filmmaking, television, and video game production
where they leveraged decades of cutting-edge technologies," said
AGBO Chief Creative Officer Angela
Russo-Otstot. "Their collective mastery of production
innovation, immersive technology, and emerging tools supports a
central pillar of AGBO's transformational approach to fuel creative
breakthroughs and unlock practical efficiencies in
universe-building and storytelling."
"At AGBO, we pride ourselves on defying industry norms and
pushing the boundaries of traditional production to deliver
exceptional entertainment across media platforms," said AGBO Chief
Innovation Officer Jake Aust. "Now
armed with the sharpest minds in the business, our Innovation team
will usher AGBO into an exciting new era of large-scale universe
storytelling that maximizes the most sophisticated technological
tools available to empower artists to reach new creative heights
and provide even more meaningful opportunities for fans to explore,
play, and live through our worldbuilding."
ABOUT AGBO
As a powerhouse independent studio, AGBO has consistently
shattered audience records with its globally resonant content. The
company has particularly excelled with a collection of hits across
both film and TV. "Citadel," which launched an original IP in the
action-thriller genre for Prime Video, instantly landed as the
platform's second-most viewed title outside of the US behind LOTR.
This flagship series boldly introduced a groundbreaking model of
interconnected, locally originated series that span the globe, and
the franchise is set to release additional AGBO-produced chapters
from Italy and India later this year. A second season of
"Citadel," directed by Joe Russo,
will begin production this fall. On Netflix, the Chris Hemsworth
starrer Extraction introduced a new franchise centered
around marquis masterful practical stunts with stories set in
untapped global locales and featuring local talent. With the
release of Extraction 2 this summer, the franchise
was cemented as the platform's most successful to-date and plans
for Extraction 3 have already been announced. Other
noteworthy successes from previous years include the Russo Brothers-directed film The Gray
Man, which sits in the top five of Netflix's "most viewed of
all time" list, and the AGBO-produced film Everything Everywhere
All at Once, which broke records for A24 and won the Academy
Award for Best Picture in 2023. Established in 2017 by acclaimed
directors Anthony and Joe Russo,
AGBO's mission is to pioneer and propel the next era of
storytelling by developing and producing genre-driven intellectual
properties that span film, TV, gaming, and publishing
expressions.
CONTACTS
Marian-Koltai Levine
mkoltai@agbo.com
Adam Blickstein
Molly Bloom
Kristen Kehlet
agbo@fgsglobal.com
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SOURCE AGBO