PRODUCTION COMPANIES
London's @radical.media has replaced MD Jonathan Davis with industry vet Jason Kemp, following Davis' move back to the agency side.

LA's Anonymous Content signed director PES.

London's Believe Media signed directors Andy Soup and Joel Pront for UK rep.

New York's Chelsea Pictures added director Lauren Greenfield to its commercial roster.

LA's FM Rocks hired EP JC Velasquez to head up its US Hispanic commercial division.

New York's Freestyle Collective signed music video director Mike Harris for US rep.

HSI London signed photographer Rankin and director Chris Cottam following the closure of Pagan Films. The duo also signed to LA's north6 films along with director Jean-Claude Thibaut.

London's Independent signed Argentine director Armando Bo.

Bicoastal prodco The Joneses signed Danish director Jonas Arnby for the US.

France's Oursin Films signed filmmaker Marc Caro (Delicatessen) for commercials.

Bicoastal Saville Productions signed feature director James McTeigue for spots as well as photographer/docmaker Douglas Keeve.

Toronto's Spy Films added director/visual artist Stephen Crowhurst to its roster.

London's Stink signed the New York-based collective Psyop to its director roster.

The Sweet Shop NY signed director Julian Pugsley, formerly an art director at Sony Music and McCann Erickson Singapore.

Santa Monica-based Tool of North America hired Brian Latt, formerly of MJZ, as EP.

POST / AUDIO / ANIMATION
Cut + Run, NY hired editor Chris Hellman, a former partner at Homestead Editorial.

LA special effects house Digital Domain added three new faces to its executive lineup: Mark Miller (ex-ILM) as president; Cliff Plumer (ex-Lucas Films) as CTO; and Kim Libreri as VP/advanced strategy.

Eyeball NYC hired Amy Kindred as EP.

Bicoastal/international edit house Final Cut hired editor Livio Sanchez.

New York creative studio Fluid hired freelancer Stéphane Pereira as a senior editor.

New York VFX house Guava hired Jay Sienkwicz as design director from Quiet Man.

Denver's !mpossible Pictures hired producer Julie Morrandez and VFX artist Hector Espinosa.

New York effects studio MassMarket hired flame artist Jaime Scott.

Venice, CA creative studio Motion Theory hired designer Jake Sargeant and visual effects artists Chris Clyne and Andrew Romatz.

NY post house Nice Shoes named three new owners: colorists Chris Ryan and Lez Rudge, and visual effects artist Rich Schreck.

Chicago's Optimus promoted assistant editors Glorily Velez and Justin Amore to editors.

British VFX house Rushes announced five new hires. Senior producer Emma Watterson will oversee the 3D commercials department. Alex Llewellyn joined as junior compositor and data operator. Mark Pascoe and Seb Barker joined the animation team and Warwick Hewett was named production coordinator.

LA's Zoic Studios hired Jim Lima as VFX supervisor.

AD AGENCIE
AKQA named former creative lead for HP North America at Digitas John Jakubowski, as creative director in the firm's San Francisco office.

London's Clemmow Hornby Inge signed creative team Dave Masterman and Ed Edwards. They join the agency from BBH, London.

DDB Canada promoted Andrew Simon to SVP, creative director. Simon began working in the creative department in the agency's Toronto office in 2001.

LA agency davidandgoliath promoted associate creative directors Ben Purcell and Simon Tuplin to creative directors.

Austin's GSD&M promoted Jeffrey Bond to executive producer of the agency's interactive group.

San Francisco's Hoffman/Lewis hired Mark Manion (ex-GSD&M, Austin) to lead the firm's creative team as vice-president, creative director.

JWT in London appointed Guy Murphy as global planning director. Murphy spent the past 14 years at BBH, working in London and the Asia-Pacific region.

Saatchi & Saatchi NY promoted the team behind Folgers' Tolerate Mornings campaign, Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico, to ECDs.

Taxi Canada announced four new hires in Toronto: Art director Adam Pickard and copywriter partner Daniel Bonder, both formerly at Publicis; copywriter Marta Zakrzewska who joined from Bensimon Byrne and art director Bhavik Gajiar who moves from JWT.

Portland, Maine's The VIA Group hired Ben Deily as associate creative director. He is formerly a freelance writer and consultant for McCann Worldgroup.

HOOKUPS> MERGERS, PARTNERSHIPS AND WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE INDUSTRY
The Cannes International Advertising Festival appointed Philip Thomas as CEO. Thomas previously worked as the managing director of EMAP Australia. The festival's operations director Carolyn Lowery will step into the role of festival director.

Former Police drummer-turned-spot and film composer Stewart Copeland joined forces with Groove Addicts to create a new "high-end" scoring series called EarDrum.

Publicis Conseil president Christophe Lambert recently resigned his post and joined forces with Marcel Paris CDs Fred et Farid to form a new agency called FFL. The new agency will be independent, but will receive 30% of its capital from Group Bolloré, owned by Havas chairman Vincent Bolloré.

Animation/motion graphics/design shop Hatch Studios launched in Toronto and is staffed by animation director Richard Rosenman, EP Randi Yaffa and motion graphics designer/director Larissa Ulisko.

Motion graphics specialty agency Novocom restructured and now offers consulting music production services. The consulting arm will help clients establish their own, in-house graphics and promo agencies, while the music branding division will provide all-encompassing original music production services.

New York post house Postworks merged with mobile post-production equipment provider Orbit Digital. Orbit's employees will continue to work out of the company's Los Angeles, New York and London offices and the firm's key partners will join Postworks' management team.

Bicoastal Stardust Studios struck deals with Resource Paris and Paris-based prodco Les Telecreateurs to have its talent roster represented in France and The Netherlands.

Sukoi Amsterdam, a new international creative consultancy, opened up in the Dutch capital. The firm's founders are Suzanna Koppedraayer and Novi van Baak.

Ad agency WPP became involved in producing television shows through its media investment management firm, Group M. The company announced it will produce six episodes of the series October Road to air on ABC.