KEVIN MARDESICH
COMMUNICATIONS
WRITING, STORIES
& MARKETING
Kevin offers full-service communication skills. His writing, story, and marketing projects help Oscar, Emmy, and other industry leaders tell their stories. Kevin's credits include: 1) PR campaigns for National Geographic; 2) developing scripts for Oliver Stone; 3) Troika ad agency projects for ESPN and Apple; 4) documentary-shorts for USAID and UCLAx; and 5) writing/producing MTV's Emmy-winning interactive films, Take A Stand Against Violence -- which earned White House praise. Kevin also lectures at Stanford, Fordham, UCLAx Film, and USC's #1-ranked PR program.
Kevin ran the Story Department for three-time Oscar-winner, Oliver Stone. As helpful context, Oliver's credits (see posters) include writing Scarface as well as directing Platoon, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July (Tom Cruise), Nixon, amongst many others. Oliver has made and won three Oscars for some of the most iconic and socially-conscious films of recent history.
Kevin has also has a passion for social-cause filmmaking. Beginning his career at NYU Film, he wrote, directed and produced a documentary-short portraying a graffiti artist turned med student (co-winning NYU's top award). Kevin also wrote, produced, and directed another medical documentary portrait of volunteer surgeons in Cali, Colombia -- creating an evergreen fundraising tool. More recently, Kevin developed documentary-shorts funded by US AID (Agency for Int'l Development), the $50 billion-dollar arm of the U.S. government. US AID funded the European Democratic Youth Network ("EDYN") whose filmmakers Kevin trained to stand--up to rising dictators.
Additionally, Kevin wrote and co-produced four Emmy-winning MTV interactive films called Take A Stand Against Violence. Through Kevin's interactive stories, viewers explored the true cost of violence. Distributed by MTV to reportedly 1-million computers, youth violence then plummeted 30% in one year. The films were also praised by the White House. Please see the below photos or "Interactive Films" menu choice for more details on this project.
Finally, Kevin was offered a 3-picture screenplay deal off his comedy script The Pumper! by producer, Ovidio Assonitis. Ovidio produced James Cameron's pre-Titanic water opus, Piranha II.
Title: Nixon starring Anthony Hopkins and directed by Oliver Stone.
Task: Kevin supervised script notes.
Award: Nixon script was Oscar nominated.
Working with Oliver Stone and his company, Kevin also has Oscar-level screenplay development credits. He wrote or supervised screenplay-notes, script coverage, and book-adaptation reports on over 500 literary properties. This was primarily done when running Oscar-winner Oliver Stone's Story Department at his story development company, Ixtlan.
At Oliver's, Kevin generated and presented weekly development-reports to the president and company, recommending which projects move forward. He was also tasked with writing Oliver a film treatment, researching scripts, editing stories, and ghostwriting a book forward.
At story editor, Kevin also helped many projects Oliver executive produced (vs. wrote and/or directed). For example, Kevin wrote the adaptation report the Pulitzer-winning book, Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. He also worked on the script for HBO's Indictment: The McMartin Trial -- which went on to win the Emmy for Best Film.
Additionally, Kevin supervised feedback notes for Oliver's co-written script, Nixon -- which then was Oscar-nominated for Best Screenplay.
Kevin also drafted both a casting and script-report for the The People vs. Larry Flynt -- which went on to be win the Golden Globe for Best Script. These two reports were for the film's director, Milos Forman (Amadeus) -- who implemented Kevin's suggestions.
Beyond Oliver Stone's company and its various projects, Kevin evaluated many VIP scripts for other studios and producers. Here, his credits include: Fallen with Denzel Washington attached; Con Air with Nicholas Cage attached; The Scarlet Letter with Gary Oldman attached; Mad City with Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta attached; Independence Day with Roland Emmerich attached to direct, and; Vikings showrunner Michael Hirst's pilot script on Alexander the Great.
Kevin also conducted script-research and notes for The Bodyguard II to star Kevin Costner and Princess Diana. She tragically passed during the script's development. Costner verifies this in his Access TV interview (this page).
Kevin has had a rich story-development career.
Title: The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Task: Kevin provided script-notes for the development meeting with director Milos Forman, the Oscar-winner director of Amadeus.
Award: Flynt script won the Golden Globe.
Title: The Bodyguard II.
Task: Mardesich conducted research for The Bodyguard II to star Kevin Costner and Princess Diana. She tragically passed during the script's development. Costner verifies her interest in his above interview.