David Rubin was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (8/6) by the organization’s Board of Governors.
Rubin is beginning his first term as president and his seventh year as a governor representing the Casting Directors Branch. He succeeds cinematographer John Bailey, ASC as Academy president.
Rubin becomes the first casting director to serve as president of the Academy. With more than 100 film and television credits, he has cast such features as The English Patient, Men in Black, Hairspray, Lars and the Real Girl, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Get Shorty, My Best Friend’s Wedding, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Fried Green Tomatoes.
Also elected to Academy officer positions by the Board:
- Lois Burwell, First Vice President (chair, Awards and Events Committee)
- Sid Ganis, Vice President (chair, Museum Committee)
- Larry Karaszewski, Vice President (chair, Preservation and History Committee)
- Nancy Utley, Vice President (chair, Education and Outreach Committee)
- Mark Johnson, Treasurer (chair, Finance Committee)
- Bonnie Arnold, Secretary (chair, Membership and Governance Committee)
Burwell, Ganis, Karaszewski and Utley were re-elected to their posts. This will be the first officer stint for Arnold and Johnson.
Academy board members may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms, while officers serve one-year terms, with a maximum of four consecutive years in any one office.
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