Director Chace Strickland, known for his authentic lifestyle and warm family oriented work, has returned to Backyard Productions for commercial representation in the U.S. The move reunites him with his longtime friends, original founder/managing director Roy Skillicorn, EP Kris Mathur, and Backyard’s Midwest rep, Nathan Skillicorn (who represented Strickland’s own production company a couple of years back).
Strickland signed with Roy Skillicorn and Backyard in the mid-’90s as one of the company’s first directors and was a major contributor to its success for many years. He left Backyard after Roy Skillicorn sold his ownership in 2011. Strickland then started his own company, Room Service, and hired Roy’s son, Nathan Skillicorn, to handle representation.
Strickland began freelance directing again in 2018, and had always kept in touch with Nathan and Roy Skillicorn. When the latter agreed to return to Backyard and join new president Kevin Allodi, Strickland began sending them his newest work that exhibited a fresh, developing look and style. Both were impressed, as was Backyard’s sales teams.
“When I first signed with Backyard, it felt like I had been adopted into a family as soon as I walked through the door,” recalled Strickland. “The place and people had a positive, nurturing and caring energy. Kevin, Kris and Roy have done it again–and it’s good to be home.”
Strickland added, “My path has always been the same…trying to find and capture honest and visually genuine realism. Sometimes it just happens…sometimes you have to re-create it, but either way, the viewer knows it when they see it and it touches them emotionally.”
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