Audio studio Sonic Union has added Amanda Fink Mandell as executive producer, partnerships. Working across Sonic Union’s Union Square and Bryant Park locations in NYC, Mandell will help foster and nurture both present and future client partnerships at Sonic Union. With a demonstrated history of strategic business development in the music and advertising industries, Mandell will act as a driving force to bring about creative sound opportunities within and outside of the traditional advertising world.
She comes to Sonic Union after her most recent post as EP at Mophonics. She is most known for producing a star-studded multi-singer cover of the Les Miserables power ballad “I Dreamed a Dream” for the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival’s “Dream” spot that earned a Gold Cannes Lion for Music. Her expertise across marketing and sales, music supervision, and producing original music composition will expand Sonic Union’s continually growing scope of immersive/creative sound expertise and client base.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More