Quick Takes: Film Independent’s double play

Six months after executive director Dawn Hudson left Film Independent to head up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization has appointed two insiders to share the role of president.

Film Independent board Chairman Bill Condon announced Tuesday that senior director Sean McManus and director of artistic development Josh Welsh will become the new co-presidents of the independent nonprofit.

McManus joined Film Independent in 1998 as development director and was promoted to senior director in 2006, overseeing fund development, marketing and communications, the annual Spirit Awards, the Los Angeles Film Festival and the screening series held at LACMA.

Since 2002, Welsh has overseen all of Film Independent’s artistic development programs, including its filmmaker labs for directors, screenwriters, producers and documentarians. “They are a seasoned team whose skills and expertise complement one another beautifully,” Condon said.

—Nicole Sperling

New label for Justin Vernon

What do you do after nabbing a handful of surprising Grammy nominations and a plush spot on the Coachella bill? If you’re Justin Vernon, you start your own imprint.

The Bon Iver frontman has launched Chigliak Records, an imprint of his home label Jagjaguwar.

A post on the Chigliak website, which has since disappeared, said the label will focus primarily on releasing records that have been either “never commercially released” or “locally released [in Wisconsin] and never put out on vinyl.” Chigliak will also issue new recordings.

The newly minted label’s first release is set to be a record from Eau Claire, Wis., outfit Amateur Love.

—Gerrick D. Kennedy

‘Finder’ teams up with Fogerty

Rocker John Fogerty is not only providing an original song, “Swamp Water,” for the theme of the new Fox TV series “The Finder,” but the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman is also making a guest appearance on the series’ premiere Thursday night.

The series is from “Bones” creator Hart Hanson, a longtime Fogerty fan. In the episode, Fogerty appears as himself, making his acting debut. His guitar is stolen and returned to him by the show’s protagonist (played by Geoff Stults), an Iraq war veteran who uses his uncanny ability to find things in his new career as a detective. The show will air Thursdays at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time. Following the episode, a stripped-down version of “Fortunate Son” will be available as a free download for one week on Fogerty’s website.

—Randy Lewis

‘Downton’ a winner for PBS

PBS has dressed up “Downton Abbey” into its biggest hit in years.

Monday’s Season 2 premiere of the tart British period drama averaged 4.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. And that doesn’t include viewers who watched later station replays or on a DVR.

That was double PBS’ usual prime-time average and 18% higher than “Downton’s” first-season average, according to a press release from WGBH-TV, the Boston PBS-member station that presents the series as part of the “Masterpiece Classic” brand. NBC Universal co-produces the series.

It’s also higher than the numbers for some other “prestige” dramas, including AMC’s “Mad Men,” which averaged less than 3 million viewers in its fourth season (it returns for Season 5 later this year).

—Scott Collins

Shatner to solo on Broadway

William Shatner is boldly going back to where he once appeared — Broadway. The actor, singer and writer best known as James T. Kirk on “Star Trek” will star in a one-man show called “Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It.”

Previews begin Feb. 14 and it runs at the Music Box Theatre until March 4.

Shatner was last on Broadway in “A Shot in the Dark” in 1961. The former “T.J. Hooker” star won an Emmy for his work on “Boston Legal.”

—Associated Press

May release for Tudor novel

U.S. publication of the sequel to Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning bestseller “Wolf Hall” has been moved from November to May.

Publisher Henry Holt & Co. announced Tuesday that “Bring Up the Bodies” will now come out May 22, three days after the British edition of Mantel’s latest novel about the Tudor court in the 16th century. The release marks a macabre anniversary: 476 years since the beheading of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII.

Mantel plans a third Tudor novel, “The Mirror and the Light.” The British author enjoyed international acclaim with “Wolf Hall,” winner of the 2009 Booker and the National Book Critics Circle prize in 2010.

—Associated Press