Malik Vitthal, whose feature directorial debut Imperial Dreams won the Audience Award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, has joined the roster of The Corner Shop for commercials and branded content in the U.S. market. This marks Vitthal’s first career representation in the ad arena.
Vitthal wrote and directed Imperial Dreams which is set for a full theatrical release this fall. Inspired by a real life story, the film was set and shot in Watts, Los Angeles. This gritty yet ultimately uplifting film stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), who plays a reformed gangster returning home to his 4 year old son after 24 months of incarceration. Boyega’s character, Bambi, is looking to leave his former life behind, aspiring to become a novelist.
Vitthal joins a lineup of directors at The Corner Shop which includes Peter Thwaites (who launched the company in 2013 with producer Anna Hashmi), Wilfrid Brimo, Ellen Kuras, Jonathan Herman and James Rouse.
The sales force handling The Corner Shop consists of indie reps Resource on the West Coast, Ziegler/Jakubowicz on the East Coast and MKH Representation in the Midwest.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More