Ken Ziffren will be named Los Angeles’ next film czar, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
He will replace former Academy chief Tom Sherak, who died late last month after battling prostate cancer for a dozen years. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s office expected to make the announcement next week.
Garcetti created the position last fall to boost film and television production in L.A. Sherak’s appointment came as the city faced an exodus of production to other states and countries offering tax rebates.
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Ziffren will be charged with using his deep relationships to boost filming in the city. He is Chairman of the Entertainment & Media Law Program at UCLA and a founding partner of Ziffren Brittenham, one of the country’s more prominent law firms. His roster of clients as a lawyer includes Jay Leno and Intel.
In 1988 he served as a neutral mediator to help resolve the Writer’s Guild strike, and in 1994 he represented Starz in creating the premium pay television service.
