OLD TIMES S P R I N G U P P E R C A N A DA UNFORGETTABLE EYE-OPENING RIVETING C O L L E G E S A L U M N I 2 0 1 4 P U B L I C AT I O N AN EYE ON HOLLYWOOD STARRING SANZHAR SULTANOV 07 PAGE 6 FEATURING LOUDON OWEN 76 PAGE 7 CO-STARRING LEONARD DICK 82, MARTIN WATIER 92 PAGES 10 & 13
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TEAM LYWOOD By Andrea Aster Loudon Owen 76 is a celebrated folk hero, the $300-million Microsoft slayer. Sanzhar Sultanov 07 is a 25-year-old wunderkind film producer. Thanks to an instant connection at a UCC Common Ties event, they ve teamed up to shake up the indie film market. W ould you like some of Loudon Owen s time, advice and money? Hint: Everyone does, so here s a tip. Don t get his name wrong. Take this troubling envelope on his office desk, for example. I made $100 million for these people and they can t even get my first name spelled right, laughs the self-described eclectic entrepreneur and lawyer. Those more reverent would prefer to call him the Microsoft slayer. The former amateur boxing champ and raw food aficionado, who boasts a six-pack in his early 50s, achieved folk hero status when he won a knockout $290-million settlement for patent infringement on his tiny tech company s program- ming language. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 and made triumphant David vs. Goliath headlines internationally. Here s another tip. Take notes. It s a sign of respect, says Owen. It shows proactive listening. Sanzhar Sultanov was a good listener. He took notes. But that s not the only reason the 25-year- TEAM UCC: MEET YOUR MATCH As this story shows, UCC s Common Ties mentorship is a secret weapon for students and alumni looking to step up their game and find a career-related mentor. It celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2014. (The program made 170 career mentorship matches in 2013 alone.) MISSION: to develop the skills, knowledge and expertise needed to excel educationally, professionally and personally SCOPE: 650 mentees and 325 career mentors; 150 link mentors assist current students with their postsecondary education choices SIGNATURE EVENTS: Finance LunchNet each spring; Legal LunchNet each fall RECENT ONE-OFF EVENTS: Hot Docs Festival film and reception MENTORS: mostly Old Boys in a range of life stages MOST COMMON ADVICE: You never know what job might come from any connections, so make a great first impression. Spring 2014 Old Times 7
In the history of the Common Ties program, this is surely one of its finest matches. old filmmaker earned Owen s respect. Among his many startlingly precocious achievements, the Kazakhstan-born Old Boy who moved to Canada in Grade 10, actually saw some profit on his first full-length film, which he wrote, directed and starred in, having juggled a cast and crew of 150 at age 21. Shot for $250,000, Burning Daylight saw both Russian and Canadian theatrical release. He recently consulted on UCC s Think Ahead campaign fundraising video, coaxing none less than Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer to narrate. Even to just earn back your investors money on a first film is unheard of, says Owen. Sanzhar has a fast-hitting blend of the ability to listen and knowing when it s time to strike with his own initiatives. He s mature beyond his years. In the history of the Common Ties mentorship program, this is surely one of its finest matches. The evolving success of this partnership speaks both to their mutual admiration and their shared recognition that, though two decades apart in age, they share an extreme work ethic that few possess. As Owen puts it, There are a lot of great talkers on the planet, but those who have an extraordinary say:do ratio are few and far between. Trusting his own uncanny ability to pick and groom a winner, Owen anointed Sultanov vice-president of development when he launched his own independent film production company, Know Rules, last February. Their goal is to develop independent films with social and cultural value, with budgets up to $25 million. One year later, Sultanov has just finished producing the Toronto leg of production on Know Rules first theatrical release, featuring his own script, the $5-million Hacker. It s about a young immigrant kid who gets involved with online organized crime. It stars Callan McAuliffe, the young Gatsby in the recent Baz Luhrmann film, and Lorraine Nicholson, Jack Nicholson s daughter, who inherited the same dangerous twinkle in her eye. Before we were ever in business together, we had a mentor relationship, says Sultanov. From our first meeting, I wrote down a lot of things that have helped me in life and in running my own company. And the crux of it is just get it done. Whatever it takes, just get it done. That s how Loudon does it, and that s what I ve adopted from him. There s also a secret way that helps hard work and working nonstop. If that s what you want, consider if you d like to quit drinking. Loudon taught me that even one glass of wine the night before will slow you down the next day, says Sultanov. As in all Hollywood myths involving mentor and protégé, there s the initial, random life-changing meeting. And Owen knew Sultanov had it the first time he met him. Or at least Owen s beloved brother Selwyn did. (Selwyn died of Lou Gehrig's Disease in 2013 and his art hangs with pride of place on Owen s office walls.) The two brothers attended Toronto s Spoke Club in 2010, where UCC s Common Ties Mentorship Program invited alumni involved in the arts to connect. That evening featured a trailer of Sultanov s Burning Daylight. Blending three Jack London stories about the Great Depression and Sultanov s own first-hand experience of being in New York during the Wall Street crash of 2008, the film explores exploitation through the eyes of assorted bankers and thieves. As Owen was about to see for himself, this film, by a student who had only just graduated from the two-year directing program at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, looked more expensive than it was. It appeared to be the work of a seasoned filmmaker. Astonishingly and in accordance with Owen s high say:do ratio the film went from pre-pro- 8 Old Times Spring 2014
TEAM HOLLYWOOD duction to print in just six months. Strasberg was a great place to study, says Sultanov. I learned a lot about directing, specifically in how to work with actors and how to create the world of the story everything from characters to environment to conflict. After the preview, Selwyn was in awe. Go talk to that kid, he said, in true Hollywood style. Owen did. The level of quality, the tight visuals, the well-known actors suitable to their parts, it was all there, says Owen. Indeed, with a feature film on his hands, it was the turning point for Sultanov. There were a lot of people that helped me get my first feature done, and I couldn t have done it without them. And certainly, when it was ready to be shown, I found that just having a feature film under my belt helped me open a lot of doors. And the partnership with Owen is the perfect vehicle for his own ambitions. With two more scripts in the can, including one based on a 18th century Jamaican slave rebellion, Owen s stripped down, nimble production company is just what he needs. This has opened up a lot of opportunities for independent filmmakers like ourselves to make great stories with high production values, but which can be done for a lower cost, says Sultanov. Owen sees nothing unusual about Sultanov s fast-track success. After all, Owen is unabashedly tribal about the kinship, respect and rapport he instantly feels with fellow Old Boys, and voluble about the advantages a UCC education offers. UCC is a seal of approval for me, he says. Old Boys have the same sensibility, ambition, global perspective and get-it-done attitude. Additionally, he believes there s no binary division between a business and an arts career, and precisely because UCC has such a range of offerings, it s commonplace to find grads like himself and Sultanov whose interests and talents straddle both. At UCC you ve got a lot of people Sanzhar Sultanov on the Toronto set of Hacker, in December. from prominent backgrounds, but each student makes up his own mind about where he s going to strive for excellence, he says. I m always impressed by the close interconnection between business and art, and at UCC you can develop skills which transfer across fields. For example, he cites fellow alumni Michael MacMillian 74 who s dedicated to art, and Michael Evans 76 who loves to play piano. Indeed, Sultanov s initial interest in film was ignited while acting at UCC. His drama teacher Dale Churchward remembers one of Sultanov s particularly outstanding and transferable character traits, equally applicable to any career path. Sanzhar was devoted to his work in co-curricular theatre, says Churchward. That [observation] appears to be a trite cliché. But it s simply true: devotion is the word, I think. Here s an example from one legendary co-curricular production, Shakespeare s Macbeth in 2007. To much acclaim, Churchward pulled in a professional fight director from the Stratford Festival. Sultanov played Macduff. We elected to turn that fight into what has proved to be the most complex instance of stage combat ever seen at UCC, including a sequence with double broadswords, says Churchward. That fight was more complex than most professional productions would make it. Sanzhar was committed to the task from the beginning. His work was physically demanding and unstinting. Devotion is also the operative word as Sultanov paces through the Toronto set of Hacker, a series of lofts on Queen Street East. As an interview subject, Sultanov can seem a little sphinx-like on first inspection, his features totally still, only his gentle gaze roving. However, Churchward, who knew him as a student, offers insight. Sanzhar always had a great sense of humour he liked to have fun as much as anyone in a cast, but he could turn on a dime and get back to work. And that s why when Sultanov, during the photo shoot for this story, says I don t smile, some crew members laugh respectfully. After all, he s in work mode, and nowhere is it more evident that time is money than on a movie set with the elaborate travelling circus of equipment, caravans and characters. Clearly Sultanov is proving himself worthy of Owen s creed, which in itself is another great tip: I ve got a Darwinian business model. You need to fight for my time and capital. If you want my time and capital, you have to earn it. If you re not delivering, you re relegated. I m like a rowing team. You ve got to work hard to get a seat. Spring 2014 Old Times 9