Native Pictures has hired Susan Rued Anderson as partner/executive producer in Los Angeles. She will work directly with the company’s founding partner, Tomer DeVito
Anderson most recently served as executive producer/managing director at B-Reel, where she secured the director (Drake Doremus) for Toshiba/Intel’s Emmy and triple Cannes Grand Prix winner The Beauty Inside. Prior to B-Reel, she was exec producer at The Sweet Shop and was integral in launching both companies’ U.S. commercial operations.
DeVito said that Anderson has “a rare combination of high-level production expertise rooted in storytelling and filmmaking craft, the ability to develop talent in an evolving media landscape and the innovative thinking that is crucial to successful digital campaigns. Susan joining us is the first in a series of exciting news about additional key hires and new directing talent we’ll be announcing soon.”
Last fall, Native announced the launch of a film division, COTA, led by veteran feature producer Michael Costigan (Brokeback Mountain, Prometheus, Out of the Furnace).
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