Production company Bullitt has expanded its roster with the addition of directors Peyton Reed and Loni Peristere.
Reed directed Marvel’s Ant-Man, starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly. The action comedy grossed over $519 million globally and has already spawned a sequel, Ant-Man And The Wasp, which Reed will also direct. His other feature directing credits include Bring It On (Universal), starring Kirsten Dunst, Down with Love (20th Century Fox), featuring Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger, The Break-Up (Universal) with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, and Yes Man (Warner Brothers) starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper. Reed is known for bringing his wry wit and keen sense of visual invention to projects ranging from TV movies to music videos to comedic television (HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob and David, Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade, Fox’s New Girl). His collaborations with high-profile talent have resulted in numerous commercial directing credits including Gap (with Sarah Jessica Parker), Target (with Isaac Mizrahi) and Cisco (with Ellen Page). Reed joins Bullitt from Moxie Pictures.
Peristere has helmed numerous campaigns for brands such as PlayStation, Audi, Jeep, ESPN, Budweiser, Adidas and Mini Cooper, which have earned a London International Film Festival Award, a Golden Pencil, a BDA, and several Clios. Peristere directed the series finale for Robert Kirkman’s new series Outcast; he is co-executive producer and director on the Cinemax series Banshee, and a director for the FX series American Horror Story. He is the co-founder of visual effects company Zoic Studios. Peristere was formerly repped by Bandito Brothers for commercials and branded content.
As storytellers, Reed and Peristere align with Bullitt’s work at the intersection of entertainment and advertising, developing experiences for brands, from commercial campaigns to VR and other varied forms of content.
Bullitt director/co-founder Joe Russo said that Reed and Peristere are “known for pushing creative boundaries for the sake of epic entertainment and the enhancement of brands.” Company director/co-founder Anthony Russo chimed in that the two latest directorial additions to Bullitt “are both deeply experienced in short and long-format entertainment, and are conversant in how technology pushes art and vice versa.”
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