Special Panel Guest - David Thompson

We are very happy to announce a Special Panel Guest who is not unfamiliar to former CQS attendees! DAVID THOMPSON will be joining Saul Pincus on our panel to speak as editors of La Femme Nikita!

Biography: David B. Thompson’s "La Femme Nikita" history goes back to the very start of the series. After being hired in the fall of 1996 by Jamie Paul Rock and Joel Surnow to edit the pilot (directed by Jon Cassar), he cut 44 episodes over four seasons. Although “LFN" came back for a shortened fifth Season, he was pre booked on another show and unable to return. “LFN" was shot and cut in Toronto, but the editors would fly to LA to fine tune each episode with Joel. The partnerships proved fruitful, and he would continue on with Joel and Jamie, editing the pilot of the long-running hit Fox television series “24", "Mutant X”, "Wild Roses", “Cracked", "The Kennedys" and Joel's feature film, "Small Time”.

David's career started in 1967 at a small TV station “ CKNX “ in Wingham Ontario. In 1973 he moved to Toronto to work at CTV's flagship station CFTO. After a few years he was offered the project "The Littlest Hobo” produced by Simon Christopher Dew (Christopher was the film editor on the original Hobo 1963/64). It would be one of the first times a electronic editor was allowed to edit and present his version of an episode to the director and producers (before this, a film editor would sit with the technician and make the creative decisions). He went on to edit over 60 episodes.

In 1984, he met with producer Sonny Grosso, the former real-life cop portrayed onscreen by Roy Scheider in William Friedkin’s "The French Connection”. Sonny and David edited the pilot "Night Heat", a late night drama for CBS. Before this, Sonny had only edited on film. Although Sonny was warned not to edit electronically he did – only to have the rest of the industry follow over the next few years. Sonny and David went on to edit together from 1984 to 1994, when David left to edit "Due South" with Paul Haggis. In 2006, David went to LA to cut "The Black Donnellys" with Paul.

David continues to edit freelance in Toronto and looks forward to meeting the Nikita fans at ReCon Toronto May 27 and 28, 2017.