Founders/exec producers Diego Luna, Pablo Cruz and Eric Bonniot have formed GLORIA, a multi-platform production studio specializing in branded entertainment. With offices in L.A. and Mexico City, the new venture opens with directors Rodrigo Valdés and Rogelio Sikander of The Maestros, Luna, writer/director Jonás Cuarón, Alonso Ruiz Palacios, Mario Munoz, and Fernando Frias. GLORIA’s upcoming projects include a feature-length branded documentary and the company is currently in production on a six-part web series for Mexico’s largest department store chain. GLORIA is represented by Siobhan McCafferty of Siobhan McCafferty & Associates on the West Coast, Janell Vircks at Representation for Media Makers in the Midwest, and Alana Rothlein of Envision It Reps for the Hispanic market….
Passion Pictures has signed London-based director Cassidy Burcher for exclusive representation. Burcher is a young Londoner whose breakthrough commercial project, a film introducing the new Honda HR-V, was recently well received. Having started his career as a runner at Rattling Stick, Burcher bought a 5D and gained as much experience as possible behind the lens, working in a number of roles including as DP on several music videos. Before long he was employed as 2nd unit director on shoots for brands such as Renault and Kit Kat, and most notably on the multi-award-winning Ringan Ledwidge-helmed “Three Little Pigs” spot for The Guardian. Subsequently Burcher earned independent freelance directing jobs from agencies, including a Morrison’s film starring Ant and Dec via DLKW Lowe. Burcher’s previous directing work includes several notable music videos and he’s keen to keep expressing himself in that medium as well as via commercials, with an eye on branching out into mixed-media filmmaking that will incorporate live-action and animation. His next big commercial project is due for release in September….
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More