Creative commercial production studio Lord Danger–under the aegis of EP/founder Josh Shadid–has added Lena Kazer as director of business development. At her new roost, Kazer spearheads sales strategy, conceives and implements marketing campaigns, and facilitates partnership engagement. Kazer earlier repped a roster of production companies, editorial and design studios, and post houses in the Midwest for three years….
James Murray has been promoted to head of the voice department at Abrams Artists Agency. A 10-year-plus veteran of the company, Murray has extensive experience in all areas of voiceover including commercial, animation–both features and television–video games, narration, promos, and audio books. Under Murray’s leadership, clients have been cast as voices in such noted feature films as Toy Story 4, Abominable and Rango, multiple animated television shows for Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Cartoon Network and Netflix, as well as national television commercials for such brands as Sprint, Ross for Less, Capital One, Bank of America, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Murray began his career in the New York office of the agency as an assistant and worked his way up to agent. He relocated to the Los Angeles office in 2014 where he continued to develop a strong roster of clients leading to this promotion. Additionally, Brittney Weiskopf has joined Abrams Artists Agency from the CESD Agency where she spent three years. Prior to that she worked as a voice agent at the Sutton, Barth Vennari Agency in Los Angeles….
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