Guy Hayward has been named global CEO of KBS (kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners). Hayward will work closely with KBS’s executive leadership team, reporting to Lori Senecal, global executive chairman of KBS and president/CEO of the parent MDC Partner Network. Hayward will oversee KBS offices in New York, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto and Shanghai. Most recently, Hayward served as global development director at BETC Worldwide and was responsible for building the BETC network in Paris, London and Brazil while overseeing global clients, including Mondelez International, Bacardi Global, and Diet Coke Europe. In the mid-1990s, he was part of Wieden+Kennedy’s early global growth, working on Nike, Microsoft and Coca-Cola in their Amsterdam office. In 1998, he and his W+K colleagues Chris Mendola, Alex Melvin and Larry Frey founded 180. The agency grew to be nearly 200 people in Amsterdam and 50 in Santa Monica before Hayward left in 2009 to become CEO of JWT UK. In 2012, he moved to Paris to join BETC….
Sugar Film Production has extended its geographical reach beyond its longstanding Dallas operation, opening an office in Santa Monica. As part of its California expansion, Sugar Film Production brings on West Coast consultant Andy Traines–former EP of Anonymous Content and Propaganda Films–to handle West Coast development and marketing. Sugar is headed by owner/EP Tony Miglini and producer Michelle Isbell. National clients Sugar has worked with recently include Time Warner Cable, Shell, Bridgestone, Ram, Ford, Tire Rack and Nestle. Santa Monica is also the home base of Sugar director Chris Smith….
Strategic and creative agency Matter Unlimited has hired creative director Jake Kahana who comes over from 72andSunny. He has created globally recognized campaigns, most notably Samsung’s “The Next Big Thing is Here,” which catapulted the brand. His design leadership has brought him to Tel Aviv and San Francisco where he helped develop the branding and content for several startups….
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