Bicoastal Hornet Animation has signed Michael Coronado to handle West Coast sales as part of the company’s spot expansion, which includes moving into a larger New York office. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Hornet develops, creates and produces computer animation, visual effects and motion graphics for commercials, promos, music videos, feature title sequences and logo treatments. With an extensive sports portfolio, Hornet, which is headed by CEO Jon Slusser, has clients that include the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, New York Rangers and Utah Jazz….Graphic Nature, a Glendale, Calif.-based animation/visual effects house, has hired Sarah Mahoney as its director of sales and new business…. Dattner and Associates, Los Angeles, has signed DPs Danny Ruhlmann, ASC; Simon Duggan, ASC; Mandy Walker, ASC; Ross Emery, ASC; and Geoff Hall, ASC, for spot representation.…DP Pat Darrin has joined Innovative Artists, Santa Monica, for exclusive representation in commercials, features and television….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More