Production company Über Content has launched a long-form content division. Coming on board to spearhead that effort is industry veteran Lenny Beckerman, formerly of Anonymous Content and Hello & Company, who assumes the position of Über Content’s executive VP of film/TV.
Über Content has made previous forays into long-form with the production of three feature length documentaries, including 2010’s I Am Comic, which premiered on Showtime. Beckerman will work closely with partner/EP Preston Lee to help shape the visions of Über Content’s filmmakers and guide the company’s transition into film/TV. Along with producing, Beckerman will continue to manage a select roster of writers and directors. The new division launches with a development fund that will allow Über to seek out and secure potential properties to develop.
Beckerman has managed high-profile talent and produced over 100 pieces of content in various genres over the past 16 years. Starting in 2000, Beckerman worked at Anonymous Content with Steve Golin for 11 years, where he helped many of the roster’s commercial and music video directors break into features. Anonymous Content produced over 15 features while Beckerman was with the company, including the renowned films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lake of Fire, Babel, and Winter’s Bone, all of which were nominated for various awards, including Oscars. Beckerman also established the company’s Literary Management Department, acting as a liaison to film studios, independent producers and funding sources, and helping the department to grow to presently include 20 managers.
In April of 2011, Beckerman took on the new position of head of film and television at Hello & Company. There, he continued to manage a roster of writers and directors while generating new development for both film and TV as a producer. Recently, Beckerman wrapped the food noir thriller Bone in Throat with Hello director/partner Graham Henman, based on the best-selling novel written by Anthony Bourdain, due out next year.
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