Director Jim Sonzero of Sonzero Films has secured SuperPowers NYC for East Coast representation. SuperPowers NYC’s Angelina Powers and KC Gulino’s focus will be on new East Coast advertising projects in fashion and beauty, where Sonzero has gained acclaim, and other genres and product categories, including lifestyle, comedy and automotive. Sonzero has worked for many leading fashion and beauty brands on assignments across North America, Europe and Asia. Recent projects include U.S. and international campaigns for L’Oreal, Herbal Essences, Neutrogena and Maybelline. His credits outside the realm of fashion and beauty include such diverse brands as Bacardi, Stella Artois, Coca-Cola, GMC, Mercedes-Benz and Verizon. He has also enjoyed success in the gaming world, directing cinematics for Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 and Guerrilla Games’ Killzone 3….
NETIA has appointed Jérémie Mekaelian as head of sales. In this new position, Mekaelian will supervise NETIA’s worldwide sales force and lead continued development and implementation of sales and presales programs. Mekaelian has more than 10 years of experience in the IT, telco, and media industry, and his expertise includes audio, speech, and video coding; technologies for collaborative solutions; network engineering and optimization; and intellectual property protection and enhancement. He has held key roles with several French government-owned companies, including the position of business developer for France Telecom’s R&D division. There he helped to rebrand the division as Orange Labs. NETIA, a Globecast company and part of Orange, is a leading provider of software solutions that enable efficient management and delivery of audiovisual content to today’s full array of media platforms. Relied on by more than 15,000 users in 200 installations in more than 40 countries, NETIA solutions allow content producers and owners to manage content from ingest to delivery, targeting multiplatform outlets including the Internet, VOD, IPTV services, and mobile devices…..
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