Bicoastal HeLo has signed directing duo Purple Milk for their first commercial representation. Brooklyn-based filmmakers Natalia Leite and Alexandra Roxo joined forces in 2012 to helm an array of provocative content, ranging from feature documentary projects to TV pilots, web series, commercials and music videos. Recently, the duo directed three projects with Vice Media: a documentary titled Serrano Shoots Cuba, a pilot for a show called Every Woman, and a holiday special about Nicola Formichetti’s NYC Christmas pop-up shop. Purple Milk’s newest project, the 10-episode Kickstarter-funded web series, Be Here Now-ish, which went live in April, is a comedy about two sexually progressive New York gals who ditch their down-and-out lives for L.A. in search of a spiritual awakening. The directorial duo is slated to helm their first narrative feature Bare, starring Imogen Poots and Riley Keough, in the summer of 2014.
Brendan Kiernan, managing director of HeLo, said, “Alexandra and Natalia are talented and dynamic storytellers with a genuine point of view and unique style. At HeLo we’re looking for talent with an innate understanding of how to tell compelling stories for brands in the evolving world of digital and experiential advertising. We look forward to working with them as they bring their original voices to the ad world.”
Roxo’s debut feature film, Mary Marie, is currently available on Netflix. Her last script, Out of Range, was featured on IFP’s Film Week at Lincoln Center and was a Sundance Lab finalist. Her fashion films have screened at fashion week in New York and Miami Art Basel.
San Paulo, Brazil-raised Leite moved to San Francisco at 18 and launched her career showcasing her art in local galleries. A two-time Sundance Screenwriters Lab finalist and a recipient of the Kodak Grant Award, Leite has since moving to New York in 2006 directed music videos, documentaries, commercials and shorts that have screened in numerous festivals internationally.
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