Merman has added filmmaker Ben Wheatley to its branded team for representation in the U.K. Wheatley continues to be repped in the U.S. by Moxie Pictures. Wheatley–who reunites at Merman with EP and partner Siobhan Murphy–has a wide range of directing styles, bending genres and minds alike. His early career saw him directing viral commercials, music videos, the self-funded crime feature Down Terrace and cult psychological horror Kill List. From there he went on to direct the darkly humorous Sightseers which catapulted him onto the global stage shooting High Rise & Free Fire featuring the likes Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons and Sienna Miller. In between, Wheatley still found the time to flex his muscles in the ad arena, directing funny off-the-wall work for T-Mobile, Premier Inn, and Thomas Cook, among others. Wheatley still remains true to his roots though recently completing the sci-fi thriller Bulk journeying through alternate realities using experimental film techniques and stop-frame animation which goes on tour around the U.K. early next year. His next big Hollywood film release is the highly anticipated neo-Western Normal starring Bob Odenkirk….
In a divided America, the left and right unite to oppose artificial intelligence data centers
In rural eastern Nebraska, a technology revolution could rise from fields of corn and soybean in the form of new data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom. But just like around many parts of the country, opposition has been building in ways that defy typical partisan boundaries. Conservative farmers and the state Sierra Club chapter recently found common cause against labor leaders as they filled the firehouse in Murdock — population around 275 — to share concerns about data center development moving too quickly. The scene exemplified an unlikely coalition that worries about dwindling farmland, declining water supplies and rising electricity bills — not to mention how massive corporations could reshape small town America into nodes in a national network of computing warehouses. The debate around data center projects is one of the rare modern issues to cut across party lines, demographics and geography — from Republican-dominated Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming to swing-state Pennsylvania to Democratic-leaning New Mexico. Supporters of data centers, including Republican President Donald Trump and some union leaders who usually back Democrats, praise a potential jobs and economic bonanza, while helping the U.S. thwart China in the geopolitical race for technological supremacy. But hostility toward developments coming at breakneck speed has surged ahead of November's midterm elections, and forced national, state and local elected officials to adapt to a shifting political landscape. Judy Stroy, a fifth-generation Nebraska farmer whose late husband grew corn and soybeans and whose son still does, worried that with "the amount of ground that's getting gobbled up every year, our food source is in trouble." "That should scare everyone,"... Read More
