Bicoastal/international RSA Films has signed feature filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow for worldwide spot representation. Her latest film, The Hurt Locker, is in theaters now after earning a SIGNIS Grand Prize when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year. The Hurt Locker, which has garnered critical acclaim, tells the story of military bomb specialists stationed in Iraq.
While accomplished in features with a filmography that includes action pic Point Break, sci-fi thriller Strange Days, cold war drama K-19: The Widowmaker and the cult vampire movie Near Dark, Bigelow is hardly a stranger to commercials and branded content, having helmed projects for such clients as Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Hummer, Mazda, Rexona and Pirelli.
For the latter a couple of years ago, Bigelow directed Mission Zero, a short film conceived by Leo Burnett in Milan, and produced by Bigelow’s former commercials roost, Santa Monica-based Independent Media. A wild ride action/adventure shown on Pirelli’s website, Mission Zero starred Uma Thurman and was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who himself is now repped as a commercials director via Independent Media).
Prior to Independent Media, Bigelow had spotmaking affiliations with such houses as Crossroads and @radical.media.
For her feature filmmaking, Bigelow has received assorted honors on the festival circuit, including from the Seattle International and San Sebastian fests, the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, and AFI Dallas. Strange Days earned her a Saturn Award for best direction from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. She recently earned the Columbia University Andrew Sarris Award for alumni achievement. And earlier this year the ShoWest Triumph Award for Outstanding Direction was bestowed upon Bigelow based on her career body of work.
Jules Daly, president of RSA Films, described Bigelow as being “one of the most innovative filmmakers today, and we look forward to partnering with her to expand upon her extensive body of work.”
Director Tony Scott said that he and RSA partner, director Ridley Scott, “have been fans of Kathryn for a long time and we simply could not be more ecstatic to welcome someone of her caliber aboard.”
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More