The Poiraud Brothers (Didier and Thierry Poiraud) and their executive producer Claude Letessier have come together with US bicoastal Cohn + Co. to launch Paranoid Projects.

The Poiraud's and Letessier are based out of Entropie Films, Paris but are now concentrating on cracking the US market from their setup at the Cohn + Co. satellite.

The Poiroud's reel contains various examples of darkly humorous, sometimes effects driven spots for Playstation, Orangina, Canon, Reebok, Hollywood Gum and Airbus (see Boards, January 2000). Letessier describes it as "super crazy wacky comedy to moody cool trendy black and white shit; they are quite good at that."

The Paranoid connection stems from a friendship between Letessier and Cohn + Co.'s West Coast exec, David Lasseron, who is also French.

"Paranoid Projects is a concept of what we all are," waxes Letessier from his Los Angeles office. "We just started Paranoid Projects. In fact, the Poiraud brothers (and other Entropie directors we represent) are setting up a base here to develop their commercials career and to develop movie projects they are writing. This makes sense, because the Poiraud Brothers have been deep into American movie culture since the age of 12. Every single reference they come up with is taken from American cinema culture of the last 50 years, from Russ Meyer to Tim Burton."

At press time, the Brothers were in Germany filming a Mercedes commercial through Springer & Jacoby. While the brothers are currently the only French imports with Paranoid, other directors from the Entropie fold may soon find themselves working through the Cohn + Co. satellite. Wong Kar Wai, who is repped by Entropie in Europe, shot commercials for LaCoste and Orange Europe through Paranoid (he is represented by Anonymous Content in the US).

WEBFILES:
Cohn + Co.> http://www.cohnandco.com
Entropie Films> http://www.entropiefilms.com