Advertising production veteran David Verhoef has joined production and postproduction collective The Cabinet as partner/CEO, alongside partner/director/editor Doug Cox and executive producer Jim Vaughan.
“Budgets have become increasingly tight in the past few years, and as a freelance agency producer I found that I was acting more and more as a production line producer myself to be able to make the budgets work,” said Verhoef. “Via The Cabinet, I now have all the tools at my disposal to make great content, no matter how challenging the budget.”
Cox and Verhoef met 10 years ago, when both were on staff at Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco. “When you spend 15 hours a day in an edit studio together and don’t kill each other, you are pretty much friends for life,” Cox noted. “David was one of those buttoned-up guys who made my job easier, and, in return, I did the best I could to deliver the caliber of work he expected. This partnership, for me, was only a matter of time.” Bringing the association full circle is Riney’s newest Blue Diamond Almonds campaign, which Cox is directing and editing.
Of his new partner, Verhoef said, “Doug is one of the most talented individuals I’ve been fortunate enough to work with in my career. A director, an editor, you name it. I consider him a national-level talent who just happens to live in San Francisco.”
Verhoef’s career spans three decades and has yielded an array of award-winning work for global brands including Nissan, Converse, Coke, McDonald’s and Microsoft. In addition to his dozens of industry awards as a producer, he has also been honored with a Cannes Gold Lion as a copywriter and Art Directors Club Best of Show as a director.
“With David and Jim, we now have two of the best agency producers in the business,” said Cox, noting that The Cabinet prides itself at coming up with creative solutions to insure every possible penny is represented on the screen.” He added, “We make the process painless because we’ve been in the trenches. Whether you need help finishing something you cut in-house or need full tilt production support from start to finish, we’re here to help.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More