EXCLUSIVE: Ellen Pompeo is lining up one other mission as she scales again her presence on ABC’s Gray’s Anatomy.
The SAG Award-winning actress is combining forces with famous documentary producers Glen Zipper and Sean Stuart for the nonfiction characteristic The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier, a movie about Alaskan sled canines getting ready for retirement. Pompeo and Laura Holstein are producing by way of Calamity Jane Productions, whereas Zipper (Undefeated, Elizabeth Taylor: The Misplaced Tapes) produces by way of his Zipper Bros Movies; Stuart (Sly, Willie Nelson & Household) is producing for Sutter Street Image Firm.
Ukrainian native Eddy Gudakov will make his characteristic directorial debut on the documentary.
‘The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier’
Calamity Jane/Zipper Bros Movies/Sutter Street Image Firm
“The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier takes place deep within the Alaskan wilderness as two girls, musher/adventurer Cindy Abbott and creator/illustrator Denise Lawson, put together a bunch of elite sled canines for his or her most difficult journey but — retiring and discovering new houses as pets all throughout america,” notes a synopsis of the movie.
The synopsis continues, “Cindy and Denise have ventured down totally different paths in life, however a mutual love for canines and the outside has introduced them collectively. Their bond grows as they information Alaskan sled canines by way of their transition from working canines into retirement, instituting a sluggish and considerate course of that permits time for the canines to study issues that family pets decide up when they’re younger.”
In an announcement, Pompeo stated, “We’re thrilled to return aboard this mission with Glen and Sean who’re each masters of documentary filmmaking together with Eddy whose attractive cinematic storytelling brings collectively all the weather wanted to make this movie fascinating to worldwide audiences.”
‘Canines’
Netflix
Zipper wrote and served as government producer on the Emmy-nominated Canines, a Netflix docuseries concerning the unimaginable relationship between people and their canine companions.
“After we created our collection Canines for Netflix my mission was about extra than simply telling tales about canines,” Zipper commented. “It was about honoring our bond with these particular souls and exploring how they’re a lot extra than simply our pets. I couldn’t be extra excited to be persevering with this storytelling custom with Ellen and Eddy on The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier.”
Zipper is repped by CAA and Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis. Pompeo is repped by CAA, Linden Leisure, The Lede Firm and Hansen Jacobson.
Pompeo is a well known canine lover and companion to a shelter pup named Tom that she adopted final yr from MaeDay Rescue in Los Angeles. In June 2023, MaeDay posted a photograph of Pompeo and Tom on Instagram, writing, “He now has a tremendous household, canine brothers and sisters and a lot love. Tom was born within the desert to a canine {that a} household discovered on the streets and didn’t understand was pregnant.”
Producer Glen Zipper
Courtesy of Jeff Kravitz
Earlier than Zipper turned a documentary producer, he served as an assistant prosecutor in Hudson County, New Jersey. Again then, a canine encounter set him on a unique profession trajectory.
“My journey from being a prosecutor to producer began with discovering a stray canine on the road, which introduced me to an animal shelter and me seeing what these canines had been up towards,” Zipper stated in an interview with Deadline. “And I actually went to work, turned in my badge and went to volunteer at an animal shelter.”
Zipper defined that the enjoyment he found serving to canines impressed him to ask a query of himself. “I stated, ‘Effectively, I wish to really feel this fashion for the remainder of my life. How am I going to do this? I’m going to pursue my dream of constructing motion pictures.’ And so after I was capable of finding some success out right here and obtain that dream, I stated, I have to pay again this debt.”
That aim led to the Netflix Canines collection and now to The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier.
“Certainly one of my brokers at CAA, Amanda Lebow, despatched me some footage for The Means Residence. And I noticed the footage and I noticed the imaginative and prescient from our filmmaker and I stated, ‘I positively wish to be a part of this,’” Zipper recalled. “I keep in mind there was about 10 minutes of footage to have a look at. I finished it after two minutes and instantly emailed my agent as a result of I didn’t wish to danger within the eight minutes it could’ve taken to look at the remaining that another producer would’ve are available in and brought it from me. So, I simply stated, get me a gathering as shortly as attainable. I wish to be a part of this.”
Manufacturing is underway on The Means Residence: Canines of the Final Frontier. No anticipated launch date has been introduced. CAA Media Finance is repping the movie for worldwide rights.
