Susanna Fogel on “Disappointment and Hardship” That Led to “Spy Who Dumped Me”

In a candid conversation, the co-writer and director of the new big-budget female buddy comedy/spy movie details the meandering career path and many professional setbacks that came before it.  These days, it’s fairly routine for a young male director to be tapped for a big-budget project after releasing an acclaimed indie — take Jurassic World‘s Colin Trevorrow, Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts or Godzilla‘s Gareth Edwards. Such a career trajectory, however, still remains rare for female directors. The career of Susanna Fogel, who co-wrote and directed the big-budget action comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me, released today, has more in common with that latter narrative than the former. After screening her first film at Toronto and Berlin film festivals at 14 years old, landing on the Black List in 2006 and releasing the well-received indie Life Partners in 2014, it took a series of what Fogel calls “professional disappointments” and “luck” to lead her to The Spy Who Dumped Me, released by Lionsgate. We had the pleasure of working closely will Susanna and we wish the movie nothing but success! Read more here and be sure to check it out in theaters today. 

“GLOW” &”Dear White People” Bosses on How the Shifting Political Landscape Affected Their Sophomore Seasons

They have second season single-camera comedies that often lean more on heart than humor (including both tackling the emotional topic of abortion), coincidentally they happen to live in the same small pocket of Los Angeles, they share the same streaming home (Netflix) and they happen to be huge fans of each others’ work. When GLOW creators and executive producers Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch and Dear White People’s creator and executive producer Justin Simien sat down at Variety, they had a lot of praise for each other and one key request — “No spoilers.”Although Simien’s sophomore offering launched in May, he had yet to see Flahive and Mensch’s, as “GLOW” isn’t due to return until the end of June. It is their first season, which dropped last June and scored some key SAG noms and a Golden Globe nom for leading lady Alison Brie, that is Emmy-eligible this year. The producers discuss how real life politics have influenced their seasons, why the look of their shows is just as important as the tone, and what they learned from their first successful seasons that they took to heart for their second. We are so lucky here at EPS-Cineworks to be working with both of these awesome shows! Read more here!