Johannes Leonardo has appointed Benton Roman to serve as group executive producer. He will join the agency to lead day-to-day production on the newly awarded Volkswagen account. Roman will report directly to Dana May, Johannes Leonardo’s head of integrated production in New York.
Roman brings to his new roost more than 15 years of experience managing and producing creative projects across all platforms. He comes over from Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P) where he oversaw production on BMW, Adobe and First Republic. During his nine-year tenure at GS&P, Roman produced a wide variety of campaigns for brands such as the NBA, Adobe, BMW, Cisco, Specialized and TD Ameritrade. He’s also produced notable branded content including “I Am a Witness” for Ad Council, which was the first interactive video experience on iOS, and “The Neighborhood”, an award-winning short horror film for Xfinity. Prior to GS&P, Roman worked at Furlined, a global production company.
“I’ve always admired the beautifully crafted work that Johannes Leonardo has put out into the world,” said Roman. “I see this as a great opportunity to contribute to that. Getting the opportunity to work on VW, one of the most iconic brands in advertising, was just icing on the cake.”
Roman’s appointment comes on the heels of several leadership hires across departments. Just earlier this year, the agency announced the appointment of Hope Nardini as creative director and Samira Ansari as group creative director.
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.
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