It is being revealed today that Manolo Blahnik, one of the most influential and talked-about icons in
contemporary fashion, will be the subject of a documentary feature film
MANOLO (The boy who made shoes for lizards), directed by Michael
Roberts.
The film is being produced by Nevision Studios One
Limited. Executive Producers are James Cabourne, Tiggy Maconochie and Anne
Morrison.
Roberts said: “Having known Manolo for
over 30 years, I can say he is a multifaceted intellectual and romantic whose
engaging mind and ingenious work is made for entertaining cinema.”
Content Media has acquired worldwide
sales rights to the documentary and will immediately begin introducing the film
to distributors in Berlin during the EFM.
James
Cabourne says: “Manolo Blahnik is an icon who continues to inspire people around
the globe. We are genuinely excited to be producing this exclusive documentary
showcasing his incredible lifetime of work.”
Content’s President of Film Jamie
Carmichael said: “Manolo Blahnik is fashion royalty and the King of his craft.
He also happens to be a wonderfully colourful and fascinating man, with a unique
world view. Michael Roberts is a director with unparalleled access and
understanding of the fashion world and the combination of both these golden
elements will make for fabulous and fascinating cinema.”
MANOLO (The boy who made
shoes for lizards) is an in-depth
portrait of the man who is regarded as a genius by some of the most revered
figures in fashion; A behind-the-scenes peek into his world; And a
must see for any person who has ever looked longingly at a pair of his shoes -
famously known on a first name basis as ‘Manolos’. This thanks
to
the
globally successful TV series ‘Sex and The City’
which turned Manolo Blahnik’s shoes into a cultural
sensation.
The film will
feature a ‘who’s who’ list of some of the most notable figures in the fashion
and entertainment worlds including Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley,
Paloma
Picasso, Candace Bushnell, Charlotte Olympia, Iman,
Jamie
Preto, Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, David Bailey, Isaac Mizrahi, Joan
Burnstein, Mary Beard, Colin
McDowell, Penelope Tree, Prince of Lampedusa, Rupert Everett and
of course Manolo Blahnik himself.
Production on the documentary is
currently underway.
The documentary comes at a pivotal
time for Manolo Blahnik, whose label continues to grow. The Couture Council
Artistry of Fashion honored Blahnik with an award at the Lincoln Center
in New York City last September ahead of the Fall Fashion Week. Blahnik received
the award as a result of his longstanding dedication to superior craftsmanship
and innovative design. For more than 40 years, he has been meticulously
designing his shoe line, which has attracted a cult following including the
likes of Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, and The Duchess of Cambridge.
Also in September, the first comprehensive and lavishly illustrated
volume to document the influences and life work of Blahnik, was published by
Rizzoli. Featuring over 40
years of shoe design, this is the definitive monograph of the work of Blahnik,
one of the titans of contemporary fashion. The book is a comprehensive survey of
Blahnik’s work and provides access to never-before-seen photography of his
designs with insightful chapters devoted to Blahnik’s most powerful
relationships and inspirations.
Director Michael Roberts is an
award-winning filmmaker, photographer, stylist, illustrator, author and
journalist. He received the MTV best breakthrough video award for Bryan Ferry’s
“Limbo.” His multidisciplinary fashion career commenced at London’s Sunday Times
newspaper. For three decades, Roberts worked for Conde Nast in London, Paris,
New York, initially as style director and art director of Tatler, next as
British Vogue’s design director, Paris editor of Vanity Fair, and
contributing editor of Conde Nast Traveller. Appointed to be the New
Yorker’s first fashion director in 1997, he served in the role for nine
years until 2006, when Graydon Carter conceived the position of fashion and
style director for Roberts at Vanity Fair. Since 2010, he has contributed
to Vanity Fair as style editor-at-large.
Over the last 25 years, Roberts’
photographs and illustrations have appeared regularly in the international
editions of GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue, as well as i-D, Interview,
L’Uomo
Vogue, V Magazine,
the Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Times. Shot in Sicily (Steidl, 2007), presents images of
the people, traditions and landscape of the Italian island which Roberts
captured over twenty years. Roberts has also published six books featuring his
critically acclaimed fashion illustrations. He art directed and edited the 2002
Steidl illustrated tome, Grace, Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue, which
American Vogue’s creative director, Grace Coddington described as “her life in
pictures.” He also co-authored Grace, Coddington’s best-selling memoir, which Random
House published in 2012.
“Manolo” is the most recent high-profile
addition to Content Media’s impressive international sales slate, which includes
Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s produced sci-fi “Higher
Power”;
Joel David Moore’s
dramedy “Youth in Oregon” starring Christina Applegate, Josh
Lucas, Billy Crudup, Frank Langella and Nicola Peltz; Dennis Hauck’s neo-noir
detective thriller “Too Late,” starring Academy Award®-nominee John
Hawkes; the supernatural horror “Don’t Knock Twice,” from ‘The Machine’ team starring
Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton and Nick Moran; the Maria Callas biopic
“Callas,” starring Noomi Rapace with Niki Caro
directing; the uplifting emotional drama “Life at these
Speeds” starring
Billy Crudup, Graham Rogers and Tim Roth; the star-studded romantic drama
“The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” starring Jason Sudeikis, Maisie
Williams, Jessica Biel, Orlando Jones, with Paul Reiser and Mary Steenburgen;
Amy Berg’s
“Janis: Little Girl
Blue” selected at the Venice and Toronto
Film Festivals; the supernatural heist thriller “The
Trust”; the smash hit HBO documentary
“Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief” from Academy
Award® winning director Alex Gibney, which was the network's most watched
documentary premiere in a decade; and Oscar Wilde's “The Canterville Ghost” voiced by Stephen Fry and Hugh
Laurie.
About Manolo Blahnik
With a career
spanning over 40 years as an independent label, Manolo Blahnik has become one of
the world’s most influential footwear designers. His shoes have spellbound an
international set of adoring and loyal devotees across the globe. Born in the
Canary Islands to a Spanish mother and a Czech father, he studied languages and
art in Geneva before moving to Paris in 1965 where he decided to become a set
designer. On a visit to New York in 1970, he showed his theater designs to Diana
Vreeland, then editor-in-chief of American Vogue, who honed in on his shoes and
encouraged him to concentrate on them. Blahnik learned the art of making shoes
by visiting factories where he talked to machine operators, pattern cutters, and
technicians. By 1971, he was in London making shoes. A year later, Ossie Clark,
then the most famous designer in London, used his shoes and from there his
career blossomed. In 1973 he opened his first shop in London’s Chelsea. Blahnik
is a craftsman. The exquisitely shaped lasts and heels he creates for his shoes
are still perfected with his very own hands. The lines and silhouette of his
distinctive handwriting, however, remain instantly recognizable as unique,
inimitable exercises in precision and balance, exquisite workmanship and luxury.
“Shoes,” he says, “help
transform a woman.” From the flagship store in London, the label has expanded
worldwide. He has also received many international awards throughout his career
including an Honorary CBE in November 2007.
About Nevision
Studios
Nevision Studios is a creative
hub, rooted in the production and financing of quality television and theatrical
content for the global market. Nevision’s board boasts some of the UK’s leading
creative and business executives including James Cabourne, Neil Zeiger, Tim
Buxton, Nigel Pickard and Sharon Bloom with a string of globally renowned drama
credits to their names. Through a forward
thinking, concept-to-screen initiative, Nevision works as a co-producer forming
creative relationships with other like-minded producers, accelerating production
and enabling access to international markets; and as an executive producer
providing a transparent and fast route to deficit finance.
About Content Media Corporation
Content Media
Corporation Ltd is a London and LA-based private company that owns and
distributes a significant library of film, television, and digital assets. The
Company’s library of rights includes over 5,000 hours of television programming,
200 hours of digital programming and 275 feature films.
Content Media
recently closed a multi-faceted deal with Bruno Wu’s Beijing-based Seven Stars
Entertainment and Media, Ltd., in which Content acquired the Alive Group of
companies allowing Content to distribute its extensive library of film and
television rights through the Alive Group to the Chinese market, as well as a
direct equity investment by Seven Stars into Content
The film sales
division launched in 2002 and represents high profile, commercial feature films
with great artistic and theatrical ambition. In addition to handling worldwide
sales, marketing, and publicity, the company assists film producers in securing
financing.
Thank you for taking the time to read our fashion industry movie blog post. We hope that you have found this news to be informative.
Learn about other fashion industry movies here on Apparel Search. By the way, we also posted an article about Manolo way back in April of 2009. It was regarding Manolo Blahnik Suede Pumps. He has done so much since then.
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