Super-Size Documentary Filmmaker Gets North American Commercial Representation

Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has joined Saville Productions for exclusive North American representation in commercials.
Spurlock is best known for the documentary film Super Size Me, in which he demonstrated the health effects of fast food by eating nothing but McDonald’s three times a day, every day, for 30 days. In addition to the Oscar nod, his efforts saw him take home the Best Director Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Spurlock is also the executive producer and star of the reality television series 30 Days.

“It’s a privilege to be working with Morgan,” says Saville’s Executive Producer Rupert Maconick. “He is one of the most exciting documentary film directors in the world who addresses serious issues in an entertaining and captivating manner. Morgan would be an inspired choice of director to collaborate with on a wide range of brands with a green or environmental slant, whether that be a hybrid car or a credit card company promoting social awareness”.

Spurlock’s second feature documentary, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008. In the film, and in interviews, Spurlock explores the fight against terrorism and views the argument from both sides, in which he tries to find Osama Bin Laden. Responding to an observation about his light-hearted approach to the search for Bin Laden, Morgan replied: “Nobody likes to be poked with a stick. But everybody likes to be tickled with a feather.”

Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me was released in 2004, and later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. He conceived the idea for the film when he was at his parents’ house for Thanksgiving, and while watching TV saw a news story about a lawsuit brought against McDonalds by two teenage girls who blamed the fast food chain for their obesity. The film depicts an experiment he conducted in 2003, in which he ate three McDonald’s meals a day every day (and nothing else) for 30 days, mandatory that he take the “super-size” option whenever it was offered, the end result being a diet with twice the calories recommended by the USDA. Spurlock’s supervising physicians noted the effects caused by his high-fat diet-one even comparing it to a case of severe binge alcoholism. Commenting on the film Spurlock said: “As one family member told me, it’s simply a really good bad idea. I guess our timing was perfect. And that’s really exciting.”

Spurlock’s television project since 2005 has been 30 Days. In each episode, a person (which in some cases, is Spurlock himself) spends 30 days immersing themselves in a mode of life markedly different from their norm, while Spurlock discusses the relevant social issues involved. FX began airing the show in 2005. In the second season finale, Spurlock spent 25 days locked in a Henrico County, Virginia jail to experience life as an inmate. He did not complete the entire 30 days in jail because the majority of inmates in the state of Virginia serve 85% of the sentence, so once Spurlock reached that benchmark, he was released.

The third season of 30 Days premiered in June 2008. The first episode of the third season, titled “Working in a Coal Mine” was filmed in Bolt, West Virginia which is located roughly 18 miles from the town of Beckley, West Virginia where Spurlock was raised prior to leaving for New York.

Spurlock graduated with a BFA in film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1993. Before making Super Size Me, Spurlock was a playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. He also created I Bet You Will for MTV. I Bet You Will began as a popular Internet webcast of five-minute episodes featuring ordinary people doing disgusting, unusual, or embarrassing stunts in exchange for money. The show was later bought and aired by MTV.