Rep Report
Staffer Virginia LuPone has been named East Coast rep for bicoastal Headquarters. She will report to company president Tom Mooney, who is adopting more of a hands-on approach to Headquarters’ sales efforts….Mary Knox has temporarily replaced Rachel Klein, who’s on maternity leave, as head of sales for Curious Pictures, New York, as well as several companies affiliated with Curious–Grand Large, Paris; Mexico City’s Calabazitaz; and New York-based INTERspectacular. Knox comes over from Commercial Artists Management, an independent rep firm in New York, where she was a partner….Michael Dimitri Betanoff (a.k.a. Michael DB) of indie rep firm La Cosa Nostra, Los Angeles and Miami, has been tabbed to handle the West Coast and the Hispanic Latin market (in the U.S. and abroad) for both Curious Pictures and Grand Large….JSM Music, New York, has secured a new network of independent sales reps: Rich Schafler and Mendy Frohlich of Schafler Artists Management will handle the East Coast; Kristina Kovacevic of KK Reps covers the Midwest; Brent Novick of Brent Novick Reps represents JSM on the West Coast; and Ann Asprodites of Asprodites Reps has taken on the Southeast territory….Los Angeles-based Whole Brain Films has secured independent rep Catherine de Angelis of Hot Betty, Chicago, to handle the Midwest….TakeTwo, a Kansas City-based production/post house, has signed Mark Seigfreid as director of corporate sales….After wrapping HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, director David Steinberg is again available for commercials via Dark Light Pictures, West Hollywood, Calif….DP Jesse Green has joined The Skouras Agency, Santa Monica, for exclusive representation….Category:Rep Reports
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More
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