Executive Producer
RSA Films
2) It sounds like ancient history, but pre-YouTube it was such a simpler era, really just :30s and :60s for broadcast. There were clients, agencies, production companies and then the networks where the work played. Now it’s a totally different world. Multiple screens and platforms for everything. Mobile is king. We’re moving into an ad-blocked and streaming world. Now there are so many different models of companies that can and do succeed–is it a digital production company or an agency or is it a client, or some new hybrid? All of this change creates tremendous opportunities. More money is being spent in marketing and advertising every year, but where it’s being spent is changing. It’s also the most exciting time ever for creativity. The tools to create and distribute are the most democratic they’ve ever been. But just because everyone can be a filmmaker, doesn’t mean that everyone is a good filmmaker. The role and importance of the individual creative person is greater than it’s ever been before. Plus there are new storytelling mediums, like VR, which will open up tremendous opportunities. To me, it’s more important than ever to know exactly what your core strengths are. And to embrace the change that’s around us. And in all the change and clutter around us, people have a basic innate need to tell and be told stories, and to be entertained.
7) All of the projects we do are going to continue to be more and more under the microscope and have to do a lot of work for the brand. Not that there were ever throwaway jobs, but now all eyes are on everything. I think we are going to see an increasing trend where there are the larger, more normally funded projects, and then many smaller ones. This is also the year that VR will increasingly come into it’s own in storytelling and advertising. Our recently released The Martian VR Experience is a prime example of this. Marketing money will continue to grow, but how it is spent will change. As consumers have more choices in not watching ads, clients and brands are going to be increasingly sophisticated in reaching them. The most important thing is to know what your strengths are, while at the same time embracing the change that’s all around us.
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