Argos Pictures is an independent documentary feature film company founded by Bill Burke and Didier Pietri. It specializes in the development, production and promotion of original content based on best-selling and award-winning books.
Bill Burke is an experienced media executive who held various positions at Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner, including president of TBS Superstation and general manager of Turner Classic Movies.
He also served as president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies. At TBS, Bill was responsible for the development of numerous documentaries, including Emmy Award winners Survivors of the Holocaust, produced with Stephen Spielberg and the Shoah Foundation, and The Private Life of Plants, with David Attenborough. TBS also produced non –fiction series in cooperation with National Geographic Television and the World Wildlife Fund.
Following his time at The Weather Channel, Bill co-authored Ted Turner’s New York Times best-selling autobiography Call Me Ted. He received a BA in History from Amherst College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Didier Pietri is an experienced creative executive and entrepreneur who held a number of positions at the Walt Disney Company, ABC and Vialta. Mr. Pietri spent over 12 years at Disney, the last four as President of ABC Pictures and as Senior Vice President of the ABC Television Network. In his position at ABC Pictures, Mr. Pietri has worked with a wide variety of producers including multiple Oscar nominated and Emmy winner Edgar Scherick, two-time Oscar winner Walter Mirisch, Academy Awards producer Gil Cates and acclaimed writers Tom Clancy and Stephen King.
Mr. Pietri was executive producer of the movie Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story, nominated for a Golden Globe. He also received an Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the movie Chasing the Dragon.
In addition, among the 34 movies and mini-series produced under Mr. Pietri’s supervision are: Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, which was nominated for an Emmy, Indiscretion of an American Wife starring Anne Archer, The Second Day of Christmas, starring Mark Ruffalo, The Siege at Ruby Ridge starring Kirsten Dunst, Laura Dern and Randi Quaid, Tom Clancy’s Netforce, with Kris Kristofferson, and Stephen King’s The Storm of the Century.
Prior to co-founding Argos Pictures, Mr. Pietri served as CEO of Vialta, a publicly traded technology company based in Silicon Valley and specialized in Internet video delivery. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and has been a repeated guest on CNN, MSNBC and NPR. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.