MICHAEL CAMPUS

Michael Campus, President of Journey Entertainment and Birch Grove Films, has a long and experienced background in the film and television industry. The majority of the television programs he has been involved with received or were nominated for Emmy Awards, the televison equivalent of the Academy Awards. One of his films received an Academy Award nomination.

After his graduation from the University of Wisconsin, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Army, serving as a commander of military trains going through the Soviet Zone of Germany, dealing with his Russian officer counterparts in an ongoing series of confrontations. He received the highest peacetime commendation for his work in this cold war meeting ground.

Returning home, he became a producer-writer on PM EAST – PM WEST, a groundbreaking news series starring Mike Wallace, of CBS and Sixty Minutes fame. Mr. Campus developed individual shows for Mr. Wallace, covering the most compelling and controversial subjects of the time.

He then joined ABC Television’s acclaimed Special Projects Division, headed by renowned documentarian John Secondari, where he worked on twenty-five documentaries as producer-writer-director. These films, shot all over the world, represented some of television finest hours of programming, and were nominated for several Emmy Awards. The shows included the acclaimed INDIA: THE TROUBLED GIANT; RUSSIA: MEET COMRAD STUDENT; and THE TROUBLED JORDAN. Mr. Campus then produced the Emmy Award winning program, THE TWENTY THIRD PRECINCT, and was a producer of the Emmy Award winning series, THE SAGA OF WESTERN MAN, both also for ABC.

Mr. Campus then joined David Susskind and Daniel Melnick, partners in Talent Associates, and produced THE AGES OF MAN, starring Sir John Gielgud. Mr. Campus spent several weeks with Mr. Gielgud preparing the television adaptation of Gielgud’s acclaimed one man show, spanning the work of Shakespeare from Hamlet to King Lear. THE AGES OF MAN was nominated for several Emmy Awards and won an Emmy as Best Special Program. It was hailed as a breakthrough program of its time.

CBS then appointed Mr. Campus to the position of Director of Special Programs for the then top rated network. During his tenure at CBS, he was responsible for over 150 television specials, which garnered many Emmy Awards and nominations.

They include the television premiere presentation of Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN, starring Lee J. Cobb; The first presentation of Mr. Miller’s THE CRUCIBLE; The Emmy Award winning one man show, Hal Holbrook’s MARK TWAIN TONIGHT; The Jason Robards starring production of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY; The acclaimed Barbara Streisand specials, MY NAME IS BARBRA and COLOR ME BARBRA; A series of specials under the banner of impresario Sol Hurok, named SOL HUROK PRESENTS; Sir Peter Hall’s famous production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s A MID SUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM featuring a very young Dame Judi Dench; and the multiple Emmy award winning VLADIMIR HOROWITZ AT CARNEGIE HALL. Mr. Campus spent several months with Mr. Horowitz preparing the program.

Universal then signed Mr. Campus to an extensive producer-writer-director contract. He relocated to Los Angeles and began directing feature films. He has directed six motion pictures: SURVIVAL, starring Barry Sullivan, Sheree North and Ann Francis; ZPG, starring Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin for Paramount Pictures; THE MACK, starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor; THE EDUCATION OF SONNY CARSON, starring Rony Clanton, Paul Benjamin and Mary Alice;

THE PASSOVER PLOT, starring Sir Harry Andrews, Sir Hugh Griffith, Donald Pleasance, and Zalman King. He has just finished directing THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE, in partnership with renowned painter Thomas Kinkade and The Firm, for Lionsgate.

THE MACK has become a cult classic, achieving an extraordinary level of fame throughout the African-American community and the film industry. It has been the subject of many stories on radio and television, newspapers and magazines. It now ranks as one of the fifty most requested films on video in America. The DVD version, released by New Line Films, is accompanied by a thirty minute documentary on the making of the film, featuring Mr. Campus.

Entertainment Weekly’s Special Collector’s Edition named THE MACK one of the fifty classic cult films of all time. It was ranked number 20, putting Mr. Campus in the esteemed company of filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Rob Reiner, Brian De Palma, John Woo, Tim Burton, The Coen Brothers, Luis Bunuel and John Cassavetes.

The Tribeca Film Festival (headed by Robert DeNiro) two years ago named The Mack one of its Peoples Choice Poll top (Guilty Pleasure) classic films, putting it in the esteemed company of Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner and Easy Rider.

The Mack has also received a prominent place in the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival in the past and opened the 2007 festival.

DVD Talk in its review, The Mack and Michael Campus, said: “The Mack crosses the line from being what could be considered a classic B-movie exploitation flick, and enters the realm of classic seventies cinema. It should be mentioned along with such films from the late Sixties and Seventies as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and Mean Streets.”

David Walker in his DVD article, The Mack and Michael Campus, said: “It is truly one of those rare moments in cinema history that transcends art imitating life, becoming a dramatic representation of life, capturing a certain place and time. It is a combination of Campus’ abilities as a documentary filmmaker, and the socio-political climate of Oakland in the early seventies that worked to make The Mack the unique film it became.”

The respected DVD Journal said: “As directed by Michael Campus, the film showcases a side of the streets that resonates, has great memorable dialogue and characters. Such things make a film a classic.”

THE EDUCATION OF SONNY CARSON is considered to the forerunner of BOYZ IN THE HOOD. Acclaimed in its own right as a major motion picture of lasting impact, a scene from SONNY CARSON appears in the American Film Institute’s book, The One Hundred Most Memorable Moments in Film History. Mr. Campus was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as Best Director for SONNY CARSON.

The New York Times called SONNY CARSON “a Howling Brute of a Film,” with “A primal energy that imbues it with terrifying eloquence. This film possesses a very real beauty and power. Rich with the language of the streets, lyrical in a scene that captures the glowering twilight sky above the desolate landscape of tenements, pulsating in its documentation of the tribal rhythms of the gangs, hideous in its depiction of police and prison brutality, chilling in its revelation of the devastation wreaked by heroin, it derives its awesome force from what it insists on saying about the American experience.”

Variety said: “When the historical dust settles on the first wave of black oriented films, The Education of Sonny Carson should stand as one of the most outstanding of the genre. A rugged, uncompromising, yet thoughtful and sensitive film about the early life of a ghetto kid, superbly directed by Michael Campus.”

Campus, who directed last year’s successful “The Mack,” has made a film that is in the great tradition of the 30’s Warner Brothers social melodramas. “

For the release of the DVD version of the film, DVD Talk said: “An extraordinarily honest and direct film, The Education of Sonny Carson is one of the most vital stories ever told about the inner city. From the tough Brooklyn streets to any ghetto in the world, the struggles here are universal. What Carson and Campus did was distill the battle of the soul down to the most basic elements: Sadness, disappointment, longing and fear.”

In 1987, Mr. Campus formed Journey Entertainment and acted as Executive Producer and Writer of THE MAN WHO BROKE 1000 CHAINS for HBO. The film starred Val Kilmer, Charles Durning, Kyra Sedgwick and Sonia Braga. Because of the incapacity of the director at the end of production, Mr. Campus directed extensive second unit filming and completely oversaw all aspects of post production, including editing, music and sound and mixing.

The New York Times called CHAINS “Harrowing.” The New York Daily News called it “A brutal eye opener. A shocking, disturbing movie.”

Daniel Ruth, critic for the Chicago Sun Times said: “Now in the grand tradition of COOL HAND LUKE, PAPILLON and THE DEFIANT ONES comes the gripping cable movie THE MAN WHO BROKE 1,000 CHAINS. A rip roaring adventure that unfolds at breakneck, tension-filled pace.”

Peter Farrell in the Portland Oregonian commented “It is a story that grabs injustice by the collar and shows its ugliness to the light – and the kind of movie you have to admire.”

The film was nominated for eight Cable ACE Awards, including best movie or mini-series. The eight nominations were the most ever received by a cable movie at that time.

It has been the subject of a prestigious History Channel show studying its value. An airing of the film on that Channel was followed by a round table discussion with leading scholars, analyzing its importance. HBO has since aired the film more than fifty times and it has had a long and successful run in syndication.

The same year, Mr. Campus entered into a partnership with the legendary Dr. Armand Hammer, Chairman of Occidental Petroleum and a life long friend and ally of the Soviet Union. Mr. Campus made an all encompassing deal with HBO to make a massive ten hour mini-series about this history of Russia from the birth of the Twentieth Century until its end (1900-2000) as seen through the eyes of two children, one rich, one poor, born, born on the same estate.

In association with Dr. Hammer’s film company, Armand Hammer Productions, Journey Entertainment spent the next three years building the thousand page script written by three of the leading writers in the world: Ronald Harwood, who won the best screenplay Academy Award two years ago for THE PIANIST, the illustrious John Hopkins (HIROSHIMA) and Mikhail Gorbachev’s favorite contemporary Russian author, Alexander Gelman. HBO and Occidental Petroleum spent over one and a half million dollars on the project. Dr. Hammer sudden death in 1990 came on the verge of launching the project and ultimately ended its financial backing. It is again being discussed as a major mini-series candidate for the 2008 season.

In 1995, Mr. Campus created and acted as Executive Producer on the Emmy nominated miniseries HIROSHIMA for Showtime. HIROSHIMA received unanimously glowing reviews, and was hailed by Daily Variety as “the best that television gets.” HIROSHIMA was the first production in American television history depicting the Japanese side of the monumental events, balancing the action of both sides surrounding the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

HIROSHIMA received several Cable Ace and Emmy Award nominations, including the Emmy nomination as Best Movie or Mini-Series, and was awarded the reknown International Pen Award. It is also the recipient of twenty international festival awards, and continues playing on Showtime and all over the world.

Mr. Campus received the most prestigious Humanitas Award as Executive Producer of the program. The prize is only given to the programs making the greatest contribution to the human condition and “promote the full realization of humanity, the best instincts and values of the human spirit.”

In 1996, Mr. Campus formed a relationship with DAY OF THE JACKAL author Frederick Forsyth and served as Executive Producer on Forsyth’s CODE NAME WOLVERINE for FOX. Is the story of an ex-navy seal drawn into a life-threatening incident while on vacation with his family in Italy. The production stars Antonia Sabato, Jr., Danny Quinn and Richard Brooks. It garnered the highest movie of the week rating received by FOX in that year and in the three years to follow.

Mr. Campus is currently in discussion with several studios about developing MAKING THE MACK, a major two hour film about the year in his life that he directed THE MACK. It is the story of shooting this film on the streets of turbulent 1973 Oakland, as seen through the eyes of the young director.

In addition, Mr. Campus is in discussion about a big budget, high profile sequel to THE MACK. As part of this arrangement, there are plans to build The Mack into the first urban franchise, to include a Broadway show and a Las Vegas musical review.

Thomas Kinkade’s CHRISTMAS COTTAGE is part of the recently concluded four picture deal with Lionsgate. The film opens November 30, 2007 in 2200 theaters.

Birch Grove has also just concluded a deal with The Shanghai Media Group, the media arm of the Shanghai government, and Tourism Malaysia, to produce DRAGONFIRE, a primetime weekly series to be shot in China and Southeast Asia.

This is the first international series venture for both governments and the first series ever to be entirely financed and shot in this part of the world.

Mr. Campus is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, and is one of only 400 members of the Directors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.