Director Clay Weiner of Biscuit Filmworks juxtaposes quintessential Hollywood insincerity with wild natural beauty in PETA’s nine-spot “Agents in the Wild” campaign for Y&R New York which aims to end behind-the-scenes animal abuse in the entertainment industry through online commercials, a social media campaign and a website for Wild Animal Artist Representation, Inc.
In this week’s “Best Work You May Never See” entry entitled “Chimp Pitch,” the camera centers on talent agent Devon Dentler of Wild Animal Artist Representation. He looks straight at us as if talking to an off-camera chimp in the wilds of the jungle to try to gain the animal as a client.
He pitches the chimp on a movie/TV role as a cop, making him the ultimate PI, standing for “primate investigator.”
Interrupted briefly by a cell phone call from a studio exec, the fakery of agent talk continues, marked by a failed bribe of bananas, promises of the moon to the prospective chimp client replete with all the star trappings–a car, courtside tickets and “a nice cage.” That cage reference, an unintentional blurting out of the truth, is immediately amended by Dentler who describes the environment instead as being “a gated community.”
A series of messages then appears on screen, reading, “Hollywood is no place for wild animals.”/”They’re caged and abused behind the scenes.”/”Help us end it.” The latter message is accompanied by the PETA logo and website address.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More