Merman’s advertising and branded division has brought Spencer Dodd on board as managing director/EP alongside Siobhan Murphy. Dodd and Murphy will serve as joint managing directors. Dodd joins Merman after eight-and-a-half years at The Sweetshop.
Dodd cut his teeth working alongside industry heavyweights including Dave Trott, Geoffrey Seymour, Chris Palmer, Frank Budgen, Paul Rothwell and Helen Kenny, going on to produce some of the U.K.’s biggest and most loved TV commercials for brands such as HSBC, Sony, BBC, Hovis, HSBC, Nike, Guinness, Sky and VW for production companies Gorgeous Enterprises and The Sweetshop.
Dodd said, “The opportunity to join one of the most interesting, exciting and future facing companies out there was impossible to ignore. Merman is perfectly positioned to navigate the evolving landscape. At a time when agency and client briefs are diversifying and the ways in which people are looking to advertise vary wildly I think that Merman is well placed to cater for all those needs. Especially so given their exciting new partnership with Independent Talent Group which gives them access to the most established and emerging talent from the worlds of entertainment.”
Dodd will be partnering with Murphy who has been leading Merman’s advertising and branded entertainment sector as business development director over the past two years. Murphy’s wealth of experience spanning two decades has led to her rise at Merman where she has helped establish the brand while signing award- winning directorial talent such as MJ Delaney.
Murphy and Spencer are also joined by Clara Bennett, head of production, who previously worked with production companies including Somesuch, Biscuit, Bullion, Bold and 76 Ltd.
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