Workhorse Media, an L.A.-based production company headed by executive producer and principal Pola Brown–has added directors Darren Ashton and Michael Sugrue to its roster for exclusive US representation.
Ashton is an Australian who was not previously been represented in the US. In Australia he directs through Exit Films. Sugrue, a still photographer who moved into motion work several years ago, joins Workhorse Media from Republic Content. Ashton and Sugrue are now part of a Workhorse Media directorial roster that includes Peter Gilbert, Maro Chermayeff, Paolo Gandola, Hugo Maza, Roberto Bado, Jones & Kelly and Paul Kamuf.
Ashton is best known in Australia for his comedy work for brands such as NRMA Insurance, Vodafone and others, as well as for his 2007 comic feature film, Razzle Dazzle, a send-up of overbearing stage mothers and dance competitions.
No stranger to the US, Ashton sports a showreel that includes a comedy spot for Woolworth’s branded beef that features a friendly Aussie handing out barbecued samples of the product to typically quirky real people on the streets of New York City, including two grateful cops who were not averse to grabbing a quick bite while in their squad car.
Ashton said many Aussies are used to bopping back and forth between their home and the States, “so it’s really not a big deal for us. And when Pola contacted me about it, I was impressed; she’s a go-getter who knows what she’s doing. As I’m fully committed to working in the US, it just felt like the right time.”
Meanwhile, Sugrue’s work includes a stylistically diverse range of web videos and TV spots for such brands as Purina, Microsoft, ESPN, Novartis, and Visa, among others. A photojournalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he worked in New York for six years before relocating to Northern California, where he’s currently based.
Often mixing still assignments with video shoots, Sugrue has worked all over the world. He’s directed, shot and at times edited a number of short films and videos for agencies and corporate clients, as well as an impressive slate of personal short films. These have screened at film festivals around the US, with the most recent, Dalston, being named a Vimeo Staff Pick. He’s just back from the Middle East, where he shot a series of documentary-style promotional videos as well as stills for the Salalah Free Trade Zone in Oman.
Sugrue’s films, while often based in reality, don’t fit the typical description of documentary work. “I like to take reality and finesse it,” he explains, “employing lighting and camera moves that you don’t normally see in docu-style work to add mood and emotion.”
Workhorse Media is represented on the East Coast by Daria Zeliger of A:D Talent Management, in the Southeast by Jim Miller of Miller & Associates and on the West Coast by Sherry Howell of Sherry & Company.
Review: Writer-Director Mark Anthony Green’s “Opus”
In the new horror movie "Opus," we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the '90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as "Thriller," "Hotel California" and "Nebraska." If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that's the first sign "Opus" is going to stumble.
John Malkovich leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull "The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri back to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams.
Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called "Caesar's Request" — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It's like a golden ticket.
Edebiri's Ariel is a one of those invited. She's 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She's ambitious but has no edge. "Your problem is you're middle," she's told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she's just a note-taker. Edebiri's self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here.
It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they're murderous. This is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" crossed with Mark Mylod's "The Menu."
It's always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror... Read More