SANTA MONICA, CA — Independent creative studio Luma Pictures (www.lumapictures.com) has announced a number of new hires to support its upcoming slate of live action and animation original projects. Andrew Coats, Alessandro Taini, Michael Langan, Sehaj Sethi, Will Jaymes and Nicole Sanders round out the new creative hires.
“Jill Gilbert and Vincent Cirelli have helped to build a unique, creative structure and to assemble the caliber of artists necessary to develop a strong slate of films,” says Payam Shohadai, founder and CEO of Luma. “I’m incredibly excited to welcome Luma’s newest talent who share our vision in producing truly imaginative and moving stories.”
Andrew Coats joins as director, following his directorial role for the Oscar nominated animated short, Borrowed Time. Coats has also held positions at Pixar and Blue Sky, where he worked on films including Brave, Inside Out, Finding Dory,The Incredibles 2, Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Rio.
Joining Coats is Alessandro Taini in the role of art director & concept artist, following an expert career in artistry in gaming, film, and publishing for companies including Riot Games, Imaginarium, Reel FX, Prime Focus, Marvel and Bloomsbury. Taini began his career and first became noticed for his work at Ninja Theory, where he worked as a senior concept artist and then visual art director.
Sehaj Sethi is known for her feature scripts The Third Rule and My Husband’s Corpse. Will Jaymes gained attention by premiering many works at film festivals worldwide, and received praise for Beast at Toronto International Film Festival. Michael Langan’s work has been called “confounding and fascinating” by The New York Times. He was honored with 16 film festival awards. All three join the team as staff writers.
Industry veteran Nicole Sanders comes on board as manager, creative affairs, following her role as creative executive at Miramax.
Luma Pictures has creative studios in Los Angeles and Melbourne. Original content is slated to begin production in 2019.