Bill Wolff has been named executive producer of Chelsea Handler’s new talk show scheduled to premiere in 2016 on Netflix. Wolff most recently served as executive producer of season 18 of ABC Television’s The View. Prior to that, he was VPof primetime programming at MSNBC from 2005-2014 where he created and executive produced The Rachel Maddow Show from 2008 to 2014. He began his career at ESPN and won two Emmy Awards for Best Sports Journalism (1990 and 1996) for the network’s Outside the Lines program. Following ESPN, Wolff embarked on a successful career as a screenwriter whose entrée to the field was the sale of Total Sports, a thriller about sports television and game fixing, to Scott Rudin at Paramount Pictures. Wolff went on to write several studio scripts, including the 2005 Fox release Rebound. In 2002, Wolff returned to television to create and produce ESPN’s longstanding daily talk show Around the Horn….
Anna Ryabtsun has joined the Wanda London office as executive producer and head of sales. She worked for Soft Citizen and Corner Store Films in Canada before moving to London to join Blink as head of sales, eventually becoming an EP for that shop. Some of her past projects include work for Skip and BBH, and the iconic Christmas 2014 John Lewis ad with adam & eve DDB. At Wanda she will work with a directorial roster which includes Leila & Damien de Blinkk, J.A.C.K, Ehsan B, TN’T, Wilfrid Brimo, Ivan Grbovic, Marco Gentile, and newly signed Natalie Rae and Camilla Mantovani. Under Wanda EP/producer Abi Hodson’s leadership, Ryabtsun will contribute to London’s effort to grow existing and new talent in the advertisement, music video and fashion industries….
Review: Director James Watkins’ “Speak No Evil”
Quick. Has there ever been a horror film set in a country home with a decent cell signal?
Nope, and there's no signal at Paddy and Ciara's house, either, deep in the English countryside. Soon, that land line will be cut, too, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Paddy and Ciara are that fun-but-somewhat-odd British couple whom Louise and Ben, early in "Speak No Evil," meet on their idyllic Tuscan family holiday. Americans based in London, Louise and Ben are at loose ends, with both job and relationship issues. And so, when the new acquaintances write to invite them for a country weekend, they decide to go.
After all, how bad could it be?
Don't answer that. There are many such moments in the first two-thirds of "Speak No Evil," a Hollywood remake of the 2022 Danish film, here starring a deeply menacing James McAvoy. Moments where Louise and Ben, out of mere politeness and social convention, act against their instincts, which tell them something is wrong – very wrong.
Director James Watkins and especially his excellent troupe of actors, adult and children alike, do a nice job of building the tension, slowly but surely. Until all bloody hell breaks loose, of course. And then, in its third act, "Speak No Evil" becomes an entertaining but routine horror flick, with predictable results.
But for a while, it's a way more intelligent film. And the jumpy moments work — I'll confess to literally springing out of my seat when someone uneventfully turned on a power drill.
We begin in stunning Tuscany, where Louise (Mackenzie Davis, in the film's most accessible and empathetic performance) and Ben (Scoot McNairy, all nerves and insecurity) are vacationing with 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). At the pool, they... Read More