Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
HBO’s Superhero Movie-Making Comedy ‘The Franchise’ Ordered to Series; Himesh Patel and Aya Cash to Star
variety.comEthan Shanfeld HBO has ordered Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci’s superhero movie-making comedy “The Franchise” to series. Himesh Patel and Aya Cash star alongside previously announced cast Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, Isaac Powell, Richard E.
Grant and Daniel Brühl. Jon Brown (“Succession,” “Avenue 5”) wrote the pilot and serves as showrunner, while Mendes (“1917,” “Skyfall”) directs.
In “The Franchise,” “the crew of an unloved franchise movie fight for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe.” Per the logline, the series “shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made?
Because every fuck-up has an origin story.” Executive producers include “Veep” creator Iannucci for Dundee Productions; Mendes, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown and Julie Pastor for Neal Street Productions; and Brown and Jim Kleverweis.
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