Droga5 has appointed Lucia Grillo to serve as production development director. The newly created role comes as the headcount of the combined production departments has grown to approximately 180 people, and within this, the diversity of Droga5’s offerings has grown tremendously.
Grillo will report to and work with Droga5 chief creation officer Sally-Ann Dale to create a smart, future-facing production business unit for Droga5. Grillo will also be part of the production department’s leadership team, which includes the head of interactive production, head of art production, head of print services and director of integrated production business affairs and the soon-to-be-hired head of film.
Grillo joins Droga5 from 360i, where she held the title of head of integrated production, VP. Prior to 360i, she enjoyed a stint at VICE Media as a group account director. Her earlier experience comes from the production side of the business, as head of production and then managing director for Psyop in New York, where she spent about 10 years. She began her production career in the production departments of J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson.
Chief creation officer Dale said, “We see a great value in Lucia’s experience of being on both the production and agency side. She has the ability to run a business, be an astute producer and be client-facing. We want to constantly explore new production solutions and opportunities to better serve us and our clients’ ever-growing content needs.”
Grillo commented, “This is a really exciting time to be joining Droga5, as it celebrates its tenth anniversary and continues to create work with impact and ambition, as well as world-class craft.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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