Veteran writer/director Greg Popp, known for his comedic storytelling, has joined Seed Media Arts for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. His portfolio includes notable work created for Head & Shoulders, Burger King and Anheuser-Busch, as well as fare featuring high-profile athletes such as Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Danica Patrick, Roger Federer, and Venus and Serena Williams.
Popp began his career on the agency side, serving as SVP/executive producer at DDB Chicago before embarking on a successful directorial career in 2005. That year he earned inclusion into SHOOT’s New Directors Showcase. Popp went on to receive numerous awards as a director including Gold Lion recognition at Cannes, Clios, Andys, and distinction for humor and talent performance from the AICP Show at MoMA.
Prior to coming aboard the Seed directorial roster, Popp had most recently been repped by Backyard Productions.
“I’m interested in having fun with my work and to me that means being in the action. The world of advertising has evolved so much over the past 10 years and I’m well aware that there’s incredible creative out there at all scales,” said Popp, noting that the Seed team is well equipped to help garner him strong creative projects and opportunities.
Seed founder Roy Skillicorn, a long-time collaborator of Popp, said, “Greg has an ability to transcend established humor boundaries while creating stories that compel an audience to either smile, chuckle or laugh out loud. With his ad agency experience, he understands all the creatives’ and producer’s concerns and thus is amicable and extremely buttoned up. What’s more, he’s both comfortable and accomplished directing celebrities, top sports personalities, actors and real people in both complex dialogue work and visual storytelling. His work is brilliantly crafted, I find magic in all his versatility and craftsmanship.”
Seed’s EP, partner and managing director Bradley Johnson shared, “Greg has the recipe for success: a passionate work ethic, intuitive comedic timing, a charismatic personality and an uncanny ability to draw out both powerful performances and authentic dialogue from his cast.”
Seed’s sales team consists of indie rep firms Schaffer/Rogers on the East Coast, Options on the West Coast, Heart Brains & Nerve in the Midwest, and Asprodites Reps in the South.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More