United Entertainment Group (UEG), a global entertainment, sports and lifestyle marketing agency, has launched its first-ever offering in Asia. Industry veteran Toru Fumihara has been hired as the managing director of UEG’s new office in Tokyo, which will serve as a hub for the Asian marketplace. UEG is expanding its global footprint into the fast-growing Japanese market as the city prepares to host two of the biggest sporting events in the world, the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympic Games in 2020. This marks the third international office the agency has opened in the span of one year, starting with London in 2017 and Hamburg, Germany earlier in 2018. Fumihara brings more than 20 years of relevant experience to UEG’s new Asia offering. He has a robust background in sports marketing, talent and influencer engagement, and sponsorship activation from his work at Red Bull and Hakuhodo, Japan’s second-largest advertising agency. Fumihara will report directly to Mary Scott, president of Global Integrated Communications, who UEG has appointed to oversee the operation and growth of the Asia offering from UEG’s New York headquarters. Scott brings more than 25 years of global experience building businesses and guiding brands through global sponsorships and platforms including throughout 10 Olympic Games.
San Francisco-based creative agency Eleven, Inc. has promoted Gary Stein, Monique Verrier, Chad Leitz, and Eric Lombardi to associate partners. Leitz will continue to serve as creative director on clients such as Google Cloud. Stein oversees activation and analytics. Verrier is responsible for agency resourcing and oversees the shop’s IP group. Lombardi oversees client health and is business director on both Pella and Dignity Health. Leitz and Lombardi report directly to Mike McKay, Eleven’s chief creative officer. Stein and Verrier report to Courtney Beuchert, Eleven’s CEO…..
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 โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ 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 โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ 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