Cultivate.Media, a Los Angeles-based production company, and Click 3X, a NY-headquartered digital creative studio along with its live action division X3 Films, have partnered to form a bicoastal strategic alliance, expanding the companies’ extensive roster of directors as well as growing their capabilities across coasts.
The newly formed partnership allows Cultivate.Media and Click 3X the ability to bundle and package a wide range of director talent with Click 3X’s well established postproduction, animation, digital and design capabilities. The partnership will also give Click 3X and Cultivate.Media access to production operations on both the East and West Coasts, including X3 Films’ sound stage and equipment in New York City.
Cultivate.Media is led by Mark Thomas, partner and managing director, and Hugh Bacher, executive producer. Cultivate’s directorial roster includes Ali Ali, Dean Blumberg, Indigenous, Matty Smith, Scotty Bergstein, Steve Gordon and Gail Mancuso.
Thomas related, “We’ve been working with Click 3X on projects so this new relationship only strengthens our capabilities and increases our opportunities.”
Peter Corbett is founder and president of Click 3X. Bill Hewes heads up X3 Films with a directorial lineup which includes Tyler Greco, Lindsey Daniels, Aron Baxter and Justin Dickel.
“Projects now combine so many disciplines–live action, post, animation and technology, all areas where Click 3X excels,” said Corbett. “With this new relationship, we now can further expand and diversify our group of talented artists in a bicoastal operation to meet the varied needs of our clients.”
Both Click 3X and Cultivate.Media are represented by Brad Edelstein and Cachet (Sabrina Mehar) on the East Coast; Helen O’Brien in the Midwest; and Toni Saarinen and Brandon Pic on the West Coast and in Texas.
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More