Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, a Best Feature Documentary Oscar nominee in 2005 for Super Size Me, has entered his multiplatform production company, Warrior Poets, into a strategic partnership with Authentic Brands Group, LLC (ABG), owner of a global portfolio of fashion, sports and entertainment brands.
Per the agreement, Warrior Poets can tap into ABG’s globally recognized brands for the development of new scripted and unscripted projects for distribution across multiple platforms including film, television, and digital.
Warrior Poets has produced a number of notable documentary films, television and digital series. Documentaries include One Direction: This Is Us, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope, Mansome, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? and Freakonomics. Among Warrior Poets’ TV projects are the FX series 30 Days, Showtime’s Seven Deadly Sins and CNN’s Morgan Spurlock Inside Man which has been greenlit for a fourth season. Digital projects include Yahoo’s Losing It with John Stamos, AOL’s Connected and Smartish, the upcoming channel in collaboration with Maker Studios.
ABG owns, manages, and builds the long-term value of fashion, sports, and entertainment brands including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Juicy Couture, Jones New York, Judith Leiber, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Hickey Freeman, Prince, Spyder, Tapout, and Tretorn.
“Warrior Poets provides a vehicle for our brands to reach a wider audience and deliver new experiences across a multitude of channels,” said Nick Woodhouse, president and CMO, ABG. “We are excited to partner with Spurlock and team to further expand ABG’s growing content pipeline, which serves to keep our iconic entertainment properties, fashion, and sports brands firmly top-of-mind around the world.”
“It is a producer’s dream to partner with Authentic Brands Group to develop and produce new projects based on their hugely impressive portfolio,” said Morgan Spurlock, President and Founder, Warrior Poets. “This partnership allows us unprecedented access to these resources and we are already in the works on several exciting new projects.”
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More