Fran Rubel Kuzui

Fran Rubel Kuzui is an American movie director and producer. She received her Masters degree from New York University and was a script supervisor for a decade, prior to her first film, 1988's Tokyo Pop, which she co-wrote and directed. The movie was shown at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim for its depiction of an American woman trying to make sense of the Japanese youth culture.^[1]

However, she is best known as the director of the light-hearted 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film—whose original screenplay was the basis for the television series of the same name.^[2] She discovered the screenplay of then unknown television writer Joss Whedon, expanded the Buffy character with him and then put together the financing to produce the picture.^[3]

Fran was credited as an Executive Producer on the TV series and its spin-off Angel, having packaged "Buffy" along with Sandollar TV's Gail Berman and Sandy Gallin. She, along with her husband Kaz Kuzui founded one of Japan's leading film distribution companies Kuzui Enterprises, a pioneer in Independent Film distribution in Japan and which distributes US films in Japan, and imports Japanese films for the US market. In 2003, the Kuzuis were among the executive producers for the Thai-Japanese film Last Life in the Universe.^[4] In 1997, Fran began working with Trey Parker and Matt Stone and produced their film "Orgazmo". Kaz and Fran then localized and distributed Trey and Matt's TV series "South Park" in Japan. Kuzui Enterprises was among the financiers for Orgazmo and Telling Lies in America.

Both Fran and Kaz worked with the artist Keith Haring to establish Pop Shop Tokyo, an art project that has been recognized by museums around the world.

References

External links

• Fran Rubel Kuzui at the Internet Movie Database