L.A.-based SUPERLATIVE has signed director Connor Carroll for commercials and branded content. Carroll has directed spots for Discover, Sony, Nissan and Amazon. His new short film is titled Rayleigh, Scattering….
Director Tristan Barrocks is the newest addition to the roster of Undivided, bringing more than 20 years of experience as a digital storyteller and film producer to the two-year-old production studio in Toronto. This marks his first production house representation. The Toronto-born director owns and operates the brand #TheDigitalStorytellers, which uses storytelling to connect brands with consumers. He specializes in grounded, authentic, and human-centered stories that connect with the people who watch them, applying his humanistic approach to work for brands as varied as IKEA Canada, Top Shop, YouTube, Roots Canada, and Apple. Several of his projects over the years, including 2018’s Connecting the Dots and 2020’s Praise & Worship, have been screened at film festivals including the Hollywood North Film Festival and the Toronto Black Film Festival. Among Barrocks’ recent credits is a 10-day shoot for Cossette on behalf of its client, YouTube. The shoot took Undivided and Barrocks across the country to shoot a variety of young YouTube creators. Undivided now handles Barrocks throughout Canada…
Cindy Scott has been named chief strategy officer at Innocean USA and becomes the first female to hold a C-level position at the Orange County, Calif.-based agency. She has been with Innocean since 2018, starting on the data science and strategy team and then promoted to SVP strategy in 2020. She now expands her current role taking on data strategy and a seat on the Global Forum Committee supporting the expanded role of Jose Munoz, global COO of Hyundai (and CEO of Genesis North America)….
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie โ a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More