Director Douglas Avery has signed with bicoastal Epoch Films for U.S. representation. Among his credits are Gatorade’s “Keep Her In the Game” for TBWAChiatDay, Carhartt’s “Weathermen” out of the client’s in-house Carhartt Creative Department, Audi’s “Summer Force of Nature” out of Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco, and LeanIn.org and Girl Scouts of America’s “Ban Bossy” campaign for BBDO New York.
Avery comes over to Epoch from production house Furlined which had handled him for the past 10 years.
Avery began his career in photography as a graduate of NYU, first assisting Annie Leibovitz, then later honing his craft with the likes of Richard Avedon and Steven Klein. Avery found success in fashion photography in London for ID, The Face, and Dazed & Confused, but had always been drawn by film’s ability to tell a more immersive and nuanced story than what any single frame can offer. While in London, Avery made many short films, including Hitch, which was featured in Cannes’ Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase, thus launching his career as a commercial director. He won Best New Director at the British Craft Advertising Awards for his first commercial for Levi’s out of BBH London; his second project in the U.S. was awarded a Clio for Best Direction, and assorted accolades followed.
“I’m always inspired to dig deeper, inspired by the stories of people and places that surround me, and strive to reflect it in my work,” said Avery. “At the core of creativity is discovery and growth, and my recent move from Paris to Los Angeles with my family to join the ranks of Epoch is an auspicious opportunity to continue to spark both.”
Epoch founding partner Mindy Goldberg related, “We believe that this partnership will bring out new things in both Douglas as a director and Epoch as a company.”
The Epoch roster is represented in the West by Dexter Randazzo, Aaron Friedland and Donn Kennedy at The Department of Sales, in the East by Tara Averill and John Robertson at Representation, and in the Midwest by Chris Brown of Baer Brown Reps.
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.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More