Director Dee Rees–whose Mudbound (Netflix) earlier this week earned four Academy Award nominations, including one she shares with Virgil Williams for Best Adapted Screenplay–has joined production and management company Anonymous Content for commercial representation in the U.S. and U.K. Rees becomes the first African-American woman ever to be nominated for a writing Oscar. In addition to directing Mudbound and co-writing its screenplay, Rees served as an executive producer on the film which also garnered Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), Best Original Song (“Mighty River) and Best Cinematography. The latter went to Rachel Morrison, ASC, who too earns historic distinction as the first ever female nominee for the Best Cinematography Oscar.
Rees said she’s “excited to be working with the cool creators and storytellers over at Anonymous and can’t wait to play around with some fun and interesting short-form art.”
Eric Stern, Anonymous Content’s managing director and partner, described Rees as “a fearless talent and an important voice in our industry. We couldn’t be happier that she’s joined the Anonymous Content family.”
Now streaming on Netflix, Mudbound explores the racial divide of the post-WWII South with sharp commentary and heart-wrenching results. Starring Mary J. Blige, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell and Jason Clarke, the film is set in the segregated Mississippi Delta, and tells the epic story of two families pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.
An alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow, Rees made her feature debut, Pariah, at Sundance in 2011; the film won the Excellence in Cinematography Award (Bradford Young, ASC) for the festival’s U.S. Dramatic competition. Pariah went on to be honored with the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards; the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director; and Outstanding Film –Limited Release at the GLAAD Media Awards.
Rees’ other work includes the HBO film Bessie about the life of singer Bessie Smith, which won four Primetime Emmys, including the award for Outstanding Television Movie. Rees has also written and directed TV episodes for Fox’s smash-hit Empire and ABC’s miniseries When We Rise, about the history of the modern gay rights movement. Rees’s upcoming film projects include FilmNation’s An Uncivil War, which tells the story of feminist activists Gloria Steinem (Mulligan) and Florynce “Flo” Kennedy’s efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment; and a re-teaming with Mudbound producer Cassian Elwes in adapting Joan Didion’s political thriller The Last Thing He Wanted for the big screen.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More