Production company Knox Avenue has been launched in downtown Los Angeles by founder/executive producer Brooke Dooley. The new venture–headquartered at Maker City LA in the historic LA Mart building–opens with a directorial roster which includes Debbie Formoso, the comedy duo Side of Fries (Luke Rocheleau & Jordan Allen), Gregory Tuzin, Noah Lagin, Maury Covington Jr., Alfonso Estrada, Joshua Moore, and Erahm Christopher.
Maker City LA is home to creators in culture, design, fashion and fabrication. Thus Knox Avenue is in a complex that offers assorted resources that can be utilized for a diverse set of productions; including a Media Lab with a pre-lit green-screen cyc, a photo studio, podcast studio, edit bays, full commercial kitchen, fabrication lab and multiple shooting rooms. Dooley served as the consultant for the Media Lab at Maker City, as it was being built and developed. Dooley earlier served as head of development for Aero Film and American Rogue where she packaged projects for brand sponsorship and distribution, and developed TV and digital media concepts with in-house writers and directors.
Knox Avenue is currently working on a series of new projects, including a commercial for McDonalds, a newly released music video for OONA, and director Greg Tuzin’s video for ICANN, the world’s largest provider of Internet domains.
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