The Sweet Shop has promoted its head of production, Preston Garrett, to the role of executive producer. Garrett will oversee all production that comes through the Los Angeles office, driving future growth for The Sweet Shop in North America by expanding opportunities for its directors.
With over nine years of experience, Garrett began his career in film and commercial advertising as a staff production coordinator at Form. He then worked as a freelance copywriter for commercial, TV and feature projects before joining Green Dot Films as a staff producer in 2011. Garrett joined The Sweet Shop in 2014 as head of production working on key projects, including the first ever commercial for Houzz, as well as ads for Lexus and Walmart. He has also worked with brands Audi, Dodge, Coors, Chevy, Wells Fargo, Dannon, Houston Methodist Hospital, McDonald’s, Almay, Netflix and NBC.
Laura Thoel, managing director of The Sweet Shop’s U.S. operations, described Garrett as “the backbone of our LA office.”
“For the last few years, Mr. Garrett has been integral to The Sweet Shop’s growth in the U.S. market,” said Paul Prince, The Sweet Shop’s CEO and founding partner. “He shares our philosophy and our goals and he’s ensured the quality of our directors’ work throughout the region.”
Review: Writer-Director Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”
Imagine you could wake up one morning, stand at the mirror, and literally peel off any part of your looks you don't like — with only movie-star beauty remaining.
How would it change your life? How SHOULD it change your life?
That's a question – well, a launching point, really — for Edward, protagonist of Aaron Schimberg's fascinating, genre-bending, undeniably provocative and occasionally frustrating "A Different Man," featuring a stellar trio of Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve.
The very title is open to multiple interpretations. Who (and what) is "different"? The original Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bulging tumors on his face? Or the man he becomes when he's able to slip out of that skin? And is he "different" to others, or to himself?
When we meet Edward, a struggling actor in New York (Stan, in elaborate makeup), he's filming some sort of commercial. We soon learn it's an instructional video on how to behave around colleagues with deformities. But even there, the director stops him, offering changes. "Wouldn't want to scare anyone," he says.
On Edward's way home on the subway, people stare. Back at his small apartment building, he meets a young woman in the hallway, in the midst of moving to the flat next door. She winces visibly when she first sees him, as virtually everyone does.
But later, Ingrid (Reinsve) tries to make it up to him, coming over to chat. She is charming and forthright, and tells Edward she's a budding playwright.
Edward goes for a medical checkup and learns that one of his tumors is slowly progressing over the eye. But he's also told of an experimental trial he could join. With the possibility — maybe — of a cure.
So... Read More