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Arnold Pearce has signed the acclaimed film and theatre director,

Sir Richard Eyre, to the roster of directors at his production company,

New Directions.

Eyre has been a theatre director for 30 years and has directed several

films and television productions but has never worked on

commercials.

He stepped down as artistic director of the Royal National Theatre in

September 1997 after nearly ten years in the job and has since directed

the West End play, Amy’s View, and the Broadway hit, Judas Kiss.

’By pure luck Richard Eyre has agreed that I can represent him for

commercials,’ Pearce said. ’New Directions is about providing new talent

from whatever source and Richard certainly has talent in abundance.’

Pearce set up New Directions in August after leaving Saatchi & Saatchi,

where he worked as a producer for 14 years. The company is backed by

Arden Sutherland-Dodd, the production company run by Pearce’s former

colleague, Paul Arden, and his partner, Nick Sutherland-Dodd.

New Directions aims to sign people who have not directed commercials

before. It already has two directors on its roster: Stewart Sugg, a

writer and film director, and Julian Dickinson, formerly a designer with

Lowe Howard-Spink. Sugg has directed a commercial for Q magazine through

Bean Andrews Norways Cramphorn and Dickinson has directed an ad for the

Juvenile Diabetes Foundation through Ogilvy & Mather.

Eyre’s film and television credits include the Ploughman’s Lunch and

Tumbledown. At the theatre, he directed the successful 1982 production

of Guys and Dolls, starring Bob Hoskins and Ian Charleston.

Eyre is also a major contributor to the debate over arts funding and

recently wrote a damning report on the state of ballet and opera in

London for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. In the report, he

described the Royal Opera House as an institution run by a ’group of

arrogant elitists’ who could not even tell him what their budget was

next year. The Eyre Report called for more subsidy for the Opera House

and for the arts in general.

While at Saatchis, Pearce was closely involved with the New Directors’

Showcase, an initiative set up to promote young commercials

directors.

During his career, he has built up a reputation for discovering new

talent and directors given their first break by Pearce include Ridley

and Tony Scott, Adrian Lyne and Tony Kaye.