New York/San Francisco-based production collective Bodega, Northern Lights, Mr. Wonderful, and SuperExploder has brought industry veteran Bob Cagliero aboard as executive producer, sales and business development. Cagliero will manage the Northern Lights companies’ sales force and develop new business relationships for content creation studio Bodega, editorial house Northern Lights, design studio Mr. Wonderful and audio shop SuperExploder. In addition to spearheading national business development efforts, Cagliero will also dedicate his efforts towards curating new creative talent for all four divisions. Cagliero consulted throughout the industry via his company Transcendent for the past two years before joining Bodega. Prior to this he was managing director at production/VFX/design house Poetica and EP at bicoastal editing/VFX shop 89 Editorial. Before spending time on both the production and post sides of the business, he served for eight years as a partner and sr. producer at Ogilvy. The industry veteran is a former president of the AICE’s NY Chapter, VP of AICE International and board member of the AICE, NY and AICE International Board of Directors….
Director Jim Sonzero of Sonzero Films has secured Andrew Hall Management for representation on the West Coast. Sonzero has directed projects for brands such as L’Oréal, Neutrogena, Maybelline and Herbal Essences featuring some of the world’s biggest celebrities (Kerry Washington, Hayden Panettiere, Beyonce Knowles, Milla Jovovich and Jennifer Garner). Sonzero’s work also spans automotive advertising (Mercedes-Benz, GMC, Jaguar), comedy (Stella Artois, Nivea, J Crew), visual effects (Lovol, H&R Block), and cinematics for Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 and Guerrilla Games’ Killzone 3….
Forbidden, maker of the professional video editing software, Forscene, has signed a reseller contract with Technicalogy, a new company formed by previous Forbidden executives Brian Boring and Antonio Nacrur. Under the agreement, Technicalogy will resell the Forscene service in the Americas, including South America. Technicalogy specializes in delivering efficient media technology workflows for content creation, management, and distribution across all media types. The company is based in Burbank, Calif, In this nonexclusive agreement, Technicalogy joins existing Forscene resellers in the Americas: Bridge Digital, Keycode Media, and Triangle Post….
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