National CineMedia (NCM) has named Rick Butler to the role of chief digital officer. Butler will lead the company’s digital products and data initiatives to deliver both innovative consumer experiences and new ways for brands to connect with movie audiences.
Prior to this, Butler had been working with the NCM Digital team as a consultant as president of Playa Vista Consulting, serving as the visionary behind NCM’s new Noovie.com movie search and discovery destination.
Butler has extensive experience in the digital entertainment space and is perhaps best known as the executive behind Fandango, building that $500 million e-commerce revenue channel both as chief operating officer, and later as EVO (NBCU) & general manager, Fandango following the company’s acquisition by Comcast.
Butler will be based in Los Angeles and will report to NCM CEO Andy England, who noted that, “Rick is an expert in B2B and B2C products and platforms and has a terrific track record of building award winning web and mobile applications. He’s the right man for the job of taking our Noovie digital ecosystem and data initiatives to the next level, creating exciting new content, commerce and gaming products like Noovie ARcade, and Fantasy Movie League designed to reach movie audiences.”
Butler also previously served as CEO of Outbox Enterprises, an AEG/Cirque du Soleil joint venture that provides web and mobile box office solutions as well as back office systems for some of the largest concert and sporting venues in the world.
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