New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Amazon�s new series THE NEW YORKER PRESENTS will be released digitally through Amazon Prime on February 16, 2016. "ROY SPIVEY" is based on a NEW YORKER short story written by
Miranda July (THE FUTURE), which features music composed by
Simon Taufique (SHE�S LOST CONTROL, JESUS HENRY CHRIST).
THE NEW YORKER PRESENTS is a groundbreaking new series that brings America�s most award-winning magazine, The New Yorker, to the screen with documentaries, short narrative films, comedy, poetry, animation, and cartoons from the hands of acclaimed filmmakers and artists. This series was brought about by award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney and his production company Jigsaw Productions and their showrunner Kahane Cooperman, a five-time EMMY and two-time Peabody Award-winning producer of THE DAILY SHOW). TaufiQue�s particular episode �ROY SPIVEY� is about a woman who happens to sit next to a handsome movie star on an airplane. In their short time together they hit it off and he gives her his number except for the last digit. She goes throughout her life as normal until one day she decided to give the number a call. �ROY SPIVEY� will unfurl on March 1st and is the only narrative piece in the series to serve as a centerpiece.
About
Simon TaufiQue:
Born in the UK with a French-sounding name, a proud exotic heritage and a street-wise attitude that�s pure New York,
Simon has been a secret weapon for a new generation of indie filmmakers. He is an award-winning Composer, Film Producer, Sundance Lab Finalist and Film Festival Programmer. Along the way, whispers of recognition have appeared in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, NME, Spin Magazine and IndieWire for his work with Julian Casablancas (frontman for THE STROKES) and accomplished filmmakers Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO), 2014 Berlin Film Festival-winner, Anja Marquardt, Independent
Spirit Award nominee Hossein Keshavarz (DOG SWEAT) and Student Academy Award winner
Dennis Lee.
Thanks to a brief detour founding a celebrated tech start-up (greenbutton.com), during the dot-com boom,
Simon found himself at the frontlines of music�s transformation by the digital revolution. His new perspective led him to study techniques of virtual collaboration, advanced synthesis and non-linear recording at NYU�s music technology graduate program.
Before long,
Simon was applying those lessons by composing for award-winning indie projects and being chosen to co-compose for the Julia Roberts produced film, JESUS HENRY CHRIST with guitar virtuoso
David Torn (LARS & THE REAL GIRL). His most recent project wearing both hats was the Berlin Film Festival-winner, SHE�S LOST CONTROL, (executive produced by Academy Nominee, Oren Moverman). The film screened at SXSW and the prestigious MoMA/Lincoln Film Society�s New Directors/New Films series. It was nominated for two Independent
Spirit Awards in 2015.
As word of mouth about TaufiQue�s collaborative process accumulates, he�s now being asked to work with filmmakers as both a composer and producer. He recently became a partner in the NY/LA film fund, Atomic Features, which has several projects gearing up for production, with him on board to produce and/or score, including IMPERIUM (starring
Daniel Radcliffe and Toni Collette), ASHER (starring
Danny Glover and Mekhi Phifer) and a film adaptation of acclaimed novel, PURPLE AMERICA, written by Rick Moody (author of THE ICE STORM and GARDEN STATE). He also served as a music consultant on the upcoming film YOSEMITE (starring
James Franco).
Simon also accepted an invitation to join the 2016 TriBeCa Film Festival Programming Committee, building on his work as Program
Director (2008) and Jury Chair (2009) at the South Asian International Film Festival.
Simon also hosts a popular filmmaker salon made up of nearly a thousand active filmmakers that meet at monthly events. Most recently, has started scoring KING OF BEASTS, and he�s producing and scoring the 2016 MacArthur Grant-winning documentary, THE INTERPRETER, about an Iraqi translator risking his life for U.S. Marines he swore to protect.
