Bruce Furst is a respected Austin, Texas, entrepreneur who oversees Intergalactic Royalty Operations Corporation (iRoc) and provides direct licensing services to a variety of corporate clients. Bruce Furst has also had an integral role in the launch of the careers of actors such as Booboo Stewart, whom he selected as a lead in the 2006 movie Fly Kidz, which featured actors with exceptional dance moves. Booboo Stewart has since flourished as an up-and-coming talent who starred in the Twilight series film Breaking Dawn as Seth Clearwater. Stewart also had a role as Jay in Descendants, a popular Disney Channel Original Movie that spawned a recently released sequel, Descendants 2. Interviewed alongside Sofia Carson by the Mirror in September 2017, about his upcoming role in the latter production, Stewart described it as an honor to reprise a heritage character and extend the character’s life on film. He noted that there is a reason why sequels are made, typically having to do with the depth of the characters and the sense that there is room for them to grow. With the Vancouver-filmed movie described by Carson as darker and more emotional, there are hopes that a third installment of the Descendants franchise will soon be in the offing.
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Bruce Furst is a respected Austin, Texas, entrepreneur who leads Ashber Corporation and other entertainment-focused ventures. Bruce Furst’s resume includes an executive producer credit on the 2006 top-selling holiday album Christmas Classics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, which featured artists from Toni Braxton to Tony Bennett giving interpretations of timeless tunes.
One of the well-known holiday standards on the album is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” co-written by songwriters Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. It originally gained popularity as a Judy Garland vocal within the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. As Martin describes it, the song first took form as a “madrigal-like” melody, which he threw out as unworkable. Fortunately, songwriting partner Blane had heard the tune and initiated a hunt through the wastepaper basket to find it. Melody in hand, they worked to create words for a song that would be suitable for one of the Garland vehicle’s saddest scenes. The initial song presented was deemed by Garland to be too downbeat, despite the scene it would inhabit, and Martin and Blane set to work creating a song that had the more uplifting sense of the protagonist “smiling through her tears.” As president of Ashber Corporation in Austin, Texas, Bruce Furst offers a full range of services spanning the executive production of films and music and related licensing deals. Bruce Furst is also head of the Intergalactic Royalty Operations Corporation (IROC), which has a unique focus on licensing and distributing royalties tied to artists’ works used anywhere beyond planet Earth. IROC was founded in the month that the US president drew attention to entrepreneurial needs related to reaching Mars. The firm’s sphere of activity is similar to that of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Unlike ASCAP, it represents an area that extends throughout Earth's stratosphere and the Milky Way Galaxy. At the center of IROC’s conception is the realization that any destination traveled to or populated by humankind will require music. Brand recognition will be linked with distribution in ways that encompass humans and whatever forms of life are discovered. In a private June 2016 meeting with NASA in Houston, Mr. Furst discussed IROC and its relation to NASA verification protocols that encompass data projected to remote planets and other parts of the galaxy. As the president of Ashber Corporation, Bruce Furst pursues high-profile licensing ventures that include supplying music content to film productions. Over the years, Bruce Furst has also merchandised licensed products for organizations such as the Major League Baseball Players Association, the Paramount Pictures Theatrical Library, and King Features Syndicate. Having syndicated more than 200 comics over its century-long history, King Features dates back to the late 19th century, when William Randolph Hearst acquired the pioneering comic strip The Yellow Kid for his newspapers. He subsequently helped launch early-20th-century favorites such as Krazy Kat, Bringing Up Father, and The Katzenjammer Kids. In 1915, Hearst founded King Features in order to better manage the burgeoning syndication business. Many of the company's best-known properties have been in print for decades, including Flash Gordon, Dennis the Menace, Prince Valiant, Family Circle, and Bizarro. Notably, the company combines strategies of product merchandising and newspaper circulation with a core commitment to works that have artistic and cultural value. Based in Austin, Texas, Bruce Furst is the president of Ashber Corporation, an entertainment licensing, production, and negotiating firm. Bruce Furst relocated Ashber Corporation to the City of Austin due to its thriving economy and entrepreneurial spirit. In 2013, Austin was named one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation. The city continues to draw residents and visitors to its flourishing music scene. When visitor to Austin want to experience live music, they don’t need to look very far. In fact, live music can be found at the airport, in grocery stores, on street corners, and in over 250 venues featuring every kind of music imaginable. A large number of music festivals occur in Austin each year, drawing thousands of people to city. The most well-known festival, South by Southwest, occurs every March and draws noted filmmakers, musicians, and artists from all over the world. At the internationally renowned festival, performers showcase their work and introduce new releases. Attendees can experience the festival at over 90 venues across the city. The Austin City Limits festival also draws thousands of attendees. Hosted in Zilker Park, the two-day festival presents some 130 musical acts from all over the world. The Pecan Street Festival is a family-friendly event that occurs biannually. The street fair features music, food vendors, and arts and crafts. The Sound on Sound Festival and Urban Music Festival are also noteworthy Austin events featuring a wide variety of genres of music. An entertainment executive who has helped launch new talent and produced a number of albums and films, Bruce Furst also performs a range of music licensing functions as the president of the Ashber Corporation in Austin, Texas. He is currently working on a project that pushes the boundaries of printed media. Bruce Furst hopes that this printed media project will include Lady Gaga as its initial featured artist. Mr. Furst is reaching out to Lady Gaga because, as an artist, she embraces futurism as a large part of her self-created musical universe. In 2013, she announced that she would be the first singer to perform in outer space after accepting a ticket through the commercial spaceflight organization Virgin Galactic. This news first broke during Gaga’s ArtRave presentation at Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City. Gaga announced that she would sing in space in 2015 as part of a special event by the entertainment company Zero G Colony. A source close to Gaga at the time told Us Weekly that the singer would complete a month of vocal training in order to perform in the far thinner atmosphere. While the 2015 performance did not occur, Virgin Galactic continues to make test flights. One source notes that a realistic timeframe for commercial space flights is 5 to 10 years. As president of Ashber Corporation, Bruce Furst facilitates licensing and negotiation proceedings for motion picture projects. Bruce Furst has played a key role in the launching of several prominent careers, including that of young leading man Booboo Stewart.
Born Nils Allen Stewart, Jr., Booboo Stewart entered the entertainment industry as a model. He earned recognition as the most sought-after male model under the age of 18 and drew the attention of Walt Disney Records, with whom he signed a recording contract at the age of 12. He toured extensively with Miley Cyrus, the Cheetah Girls, and the Jonas Brothers before finding work in television and film. Booboo Stewart has worked as a stunt person for a number of films and has appeared in such television series as Everybody Hates Chris and ER. He earned his most widespread recognition as Seth Clearwater in The Twilight Saga, having first appeared in the 2010 episode Eclipse and then later taking on a larger role in the 2011 and 2012 installments of Breaking Dawn. He shares his free time with the community as a celebrity ambassador of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and as a supporter of such outreach initiatives as the Los Angeles Mission and Australia's Channel 7 Telethon. |
AuthorWith over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry, Bruce Furst boasts significant expertise in film and music licensing. Archives
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