To all those agents who secretly dream of directing… I can’t think of a Hollywood journey like Tony Krantz’s. The son of Beverly Hills novelist Judith Krantz, he went from head of primetime packaging at CAA (where he helped put together ER, The West Wing, Twin Peaks, Beverly Hills 90210) and then CEO of Imagine Television (where he exec produced Felicity and 24 among other shows with JJ Abrams, Peter Berg, Aaron Sorkin, and David Lynch) to directing 3 1/2 years ago. Since then, he’s helmed 3 films. The first two, Sublime (a surreal horror flicks) and Otis (a horror comedy), were put out by Warner Bros Home Video under the Raw Feed genre label. Now he’s wrapped directing his first theatrical which has just landed distribution with Anchor Bay after a competitive bidding situation.

Titled The Big Bang, the stylish noir indie was produced by Richard Rionda’s Hannibal Pictures and Krantz’s own Flame Ventures and stars Antonio Banderas with a large supporting cast including Sam Elliott, William Fichtner, Thomas Kretschmann, Delroy Lindo, Sienna Guillory, and Snoop Dogg. It was written by Erik Jendresen (Band Of Brothers). WME’s Graham Taylor orchestrated the sale.

Krantz is keeping his hand in TV. His company just sold 4 dramas (the most of any indie) to NBC this year: The Fixer, written by Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) and co-produced with Colin Callender, the former head of HBO movies; Sideline Reporter, written by Ron Shelton (Bull Durham); Ritual Crime, written by Adam Simon (Haunting In Connecticut); and Untitled Dance Drama, written by Duane Adler (Save The Last Dance) and co-produced with Larry Mark (Dreamgirls).

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.