Veteran producer Mark Leemkuil has been hired as head of production and Michelle Weller has come on board as head of production/ Prague for Milk & Honey Production Services, a Los Angeles-headquartered division of Milk & Honey Films.
Leemkuil will oversee all commercial, feature film and television projects originating in the U.S. and filming abroad, with special emphasis on Latin American productions. In addition, Leemkuil will supervise projects for the companys long-form division, Milk & Honey Pictures.
Meanwhile, Weller will bring her Western-style production expertise and accounting experience to Prague, where she will executive produce U.S.-based projects filming in the Czech Republic, while also overseeing the Prague offices day-to-day operations.
To further streamline its services, Milk & Honey has set up an exchange program in which employees become familiar with cultural and production standards in the companys other international offices. In addition, Weller is expanding the Prague offices database of resources available in Europe so that Milk & Honey can serve as an information clearinghouse for companies filming there.
We are adding a few crossbeams to Milk & Honeys architecture to help our clients walk away with the highest-quality film possible, said Milk & Honey Films exec. producer/ partner Howard Woffinden. Marks abilities as a producer make him ideal to manage our operations, while his experience working in Mexico and his fluency in Spanish will allow us to enhance our Latin American presence.
Leemkuil comes to Milk & Honey after a six-year stint as a freelance producer. His credits include commercials for MCI and Mattel through Riverstreet, Los Angeles, and bicoastal Pittard Sullivan; new live-action footage integrated into the 1997 theatrical re-release of Star Wars; ABC-TVs series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; and music videos for artists including Cracker, Janes Addiction and Tom Petty through such production companies as Squeak Pictures, Los Angeles, Dayton/Faris, Venice, and Oil Factory, Hollywood.
Prior to freelancing, Leemkuil served for three years as head of production at now-defunct music video house Midnight Films, where he supervised production of clips for such artists as Nirvana, U2, INXS, Janes Addiction and others.
Weller
Regarding the hiring of Weller, Woffinden said, Our goal is to have agencies and production companies encounter the same level of support in Prague that they would in the U.S. With her diverse production background and vast accounting expertise, Michelle is just the right person to make that happen.
Weller said, Im looking forward to working side-by-side with Tomas [Krejci, Milk & Honey partner/executive producer], who has deep contacts and experience within the Prague production community. Together we will fortify the Prague offices, from providing customer service to organizing wrap folders.
A freelance producer, production manager and production coordinator for the last two years, Wellers credits include commercials for Sprint, Xerox and McDonalds; Yesterdays Rain, a feature starring Lesley Ann Warren; Dead Wrong, a short Weller wrote and directed; and music videos for such acts as Foo Fighters and Rancid.
Before freelancing, Weller worked with feature producer Steven J. Wolfe (Bird of Prey), assisting in the development, production and distribution of more than a dozen films. From 1989-93, Weller was manager of the production support group at Universal Pictures, where she served as liaison between the studio and the accounting offices on location for all Universal feature and television productions, including Kindergarten Cop and Northern Exposure.
Los Angeles-headquartered Milk & Honey Films is an international entertainment company with two divisions: Milk & Honey Production Services and Milk & Honey Pictures. Milk & Honey Production Services also maintains offices in Prague, London, Montreal, Toronto, Mexico City and Moscow, where it orchestrates live-action shoots from preproduction through wrap for the feature film, commercial and music video arenas. Milk & Honey Pictures, also based in Los Angeles, produces creative content for the feature, television and home video market. Projects include the 1998 Buena Vista Home Video Happy Haunting and Beautiful Losers, which is in development with Cinemaginaire, Montreal.
-Millie Takaki
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