Filmmaker Olivia Wilde has signed with production and management company Anonymous Content for her first commercial and music video representation. Anonymous is handling her worldwide. Wilde recently made her feature film directorial debut with the raucous comedy Booksmart, which is one of the best-reviewed films of the year with 97% “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. Her signing comes after a longstanding relationship with Anonymous Content, through which she previously directed the music videos for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes’ “No Love Like Yours,” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dark Necessities.”
“Having worked with Olivia on her directorial debut for Edward Sharpe, we have long known what a talented visual artist she is,” said Eric Stern, Anonymous Content managing director and partner. “With Booksmart she has created a generational anthem that is the perfect showcase for her passion, skill and singular vision.”
Booksmart–which Wilde has described as a “love letter” to the ‘80s and ‘90s movies that influenced her, including The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off–is a celebration of adolescence from a female perspective. The film follows best friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) on the eve of their high school graduation. When the two academic overachievers realize their partying peers have been accepted into top-tier colleges as well, they decide to pack four years of fun into one wild night.
The writer, director and producer previously wrote and directed the short Free Hugs for Glamour magazine. Additionally, Wilde served as executive producer on several documentary short films, including: Sun City Picture House (2010), about a community in Haiti that rallies to build a movie theater after the disastrous 2010 earthquake, Baseball in the Time of Cholera (2012), which explored the cholera epidemic in Haiti, and Body Team 12 (2015), an Oscar-nominated project which followed the devastating Ebola outbreak in Liberia.
Wilde is also known for her prominent acting roles in such films as Meadowland, Her and A Vigilante, as well as Fox’s long-running series House. In 2017, she made her Broadway debut with “1984” at the Hudson Theatre in New York. She is currently in production on Clint Eastwood’s upcoming film Richard Jewell, based on the true story of the security guard who was falsely accused of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing. Wilde plays real-life reporter Kathy Scruggs who covered the event as it unfolded.
Wilde is a board member of the organization “Artists for Peace and Justice,” which supports communities in Haiti through programs in education, health care, and dignity through the performing arts.
In Time For Oct. 7 Anniversary, “We Will Dance Again” Documents Hamas’ Attack On Israel Music Festival
Horror came with sunrise following an all-night rave near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, the Hamas attack presaged by rockets that some young people mistakenly thought were fireworks. A new documentary shows the attack unfold over the next hours in stomach-churning detail: Gunmen mowing down passengers in cars that try to escape. Hiding in a garbage dumpster, or a refrigerator, to avoid detection. Live grenades tossed into a bunker, then thrown out seconds before exploding. Terrified hostages carried away to an uncertain fate. Veteran news producer Susan Zirinsky calls "We Will Dance Again" the most significant project she's ever worked on, notable praise considering her "9/11" film is arguably the best video document of that day. How much it is seen, however, may depend as much on context as content. The film is now streaming on the Paramount+ service and debuted last weekend on Showtime, in advance of the attack's one-year anniversary. Distributors acknowledge, however, that it has been a hard sell in markets across the world: many potential outlets and film festivals did not want to wade into a hot-button political issue with war in the Mideast grinding on. Different openings were made for different markets A message at the film's beginning acknowledges that the human cost of the Oct. 7 massacre and the war that followed in Gaza "has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians" and lists the death toll on both sides. "This film cannot tell everyone's story," it says. The message does not appear, however, when "We Will Dance Again" is screened in Israel. "We are documenting a moment in history," Zirinsky said. "This is not a political film. This happened." The former CBS News president is now chief of See It Now... Read More