Park Pictures has signed the multi-faceted directing duo known as Jungle. This marks the directors’ first commercial representation in the U.S. Internationally Jungle is repped by Blink in the U.K., Rebolucion in Latin America, Untitled in Brazil, and TPF in Germany.
Jungle is composed of two Brazilian-born filmmakers who reconnected a decade after meeting at university to combine their passions of visual arts and postproduction to tell fantastic, disruptive stories. With a strong emphasis on audiovisuals and visual effects, Jungle’s narratives provoke an emotionally charged tension that transports viewers to another world. Jungle’s diverse client list includes Electronic Arts (EA), Netflix, Jägermeister, Nike, and Uber.
Jungle has scored varied accolades, such as recognition at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and Silver and Wood Pencils at D&AD, also this year. Their work for Jägermeister, “Trapped,” which earned them the Gold British Arrow for Best New Director 2020, is an especially mesmerizing film that follows a man as he’s suspended in everyday life. Around a minimalist cityscape and through the use of visual effects, the actor’s body contorts, floating just above the ground in mid-air, as in a pool or zero-gravity tank. When the beat in the cutting-edge audio inevitably drops, the subject breaks free from this surrealist affliction, bursting to life with energy. To the audience, it’s like a breath of fresh air after being submerged in the weightiness and mundanity of day-to-day existence.
Jungle’s latest project, “Matchday For The World’s Game,” for EA Sports FIFA 2023 out of Wieden+Kennedy Portland, was released earlier this month. Starring Kylian Mbappe, Sam Kerr, Zinedine Zidane, Jack Grealish, and Chloe Kelly, the film is EA Sports’ final FIFA ad before the game rebrands to EA Sports FC next year.
“Park’s reputation is impeccable. We are very excited about our arrival, and (company co-founders) Jackie (Bisbee) and Lance (director/DP Acord) are exceptional; we love their approach as a production company focused on telling compelling and meaningful stories. For us, it’s a big honor to be on a roster with such incredible and talented visual storytellers.”
Park founding partner Bisbee added, “Jungle’s work has the power to shift perspective. There’s a magical and mysterious element to their work. Their complementary backgrounds enable them to push ideas further and their shared cultural and artistic references blend to form their distinctive, engaging vision.”
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