Bicoastal production company Park Pictures has signed Damian Kulash for worldwide representation. This marks his first formal representation as a director. Kulash, frontman for the band OK Go, has conceived of and directed 15 wildly popular videos for the band in collaboration with nine other directors, racking up more than 250 million views along the way.
OK Go’s most recent offering, the zero gravity video for “Upside Down & Inside Out,” passed 47 million views in its first week online. Directed by Kulash and Trish Sie (via Bob Industries), the video, with thanks to S7 Airlines, joins the band’s long list of trailblazing brand partnerships. Some highlights: “I Won’t Let You Down,” which features Honda scooters and thousands of Japanese dancers doing a mind-bending routine with umbrellas; “Needing/Getting,” the Chevy Super Bowl spot in which Kulash himself stunt drives a Chevy rigged with robotic arms, performing the song live by bashing through a vast desert obstacle course of homemade instruments; and “This Too Shall Pass,” which features an astonishingly elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine (or “mouse trap device”) unfolding in perfect time to the song. Last year, Kulash also directed the optical illusion-driven Red Star Maccaline ad, which was a huge hit for the Chinese furniture retailer, and was inspired by the band’s own “The Writing’s On The Wall” video.
OK Go’s list of awards include a Grammy, three MTV VMAs (one from Japan), two Webby’s (one for Lifetime Achievement), eight Cannes Lions, four D&AD Awards, three UK MVAs, a YouTube Most Creative Award, a YouTube YTMA award, a Public Knowledge IP3 Award, and countless awards from top film festivals.
Jackie Kelman Bisbee, EP/co-founder of Park Pictures, noted, “We’ve always been huge fans of OK Go’s videos. Damian is a technically gifted and visionary director. Each video eclipses the last in its creative boundaries. We’re very thrilled to represent the architect behind the entire body of work.”
Added Kulash, “OK Go accidentally stumbled into the world of filmmaking when a rehearsal tape of us dancing in my backyard went viral in 2006, and what a lucky accident it was for me. In the decade since, I’ve chased my creative ideas down ever more exciting and unexpected paths, and along the way I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the world’s most amazing engineers, dancers, technologists, choreographers, and filmmakers. I’m thrilled to be taking my game to a new level.”
Washington, D.C.-born Kulash graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he earned the Weston Prize in music composition. His essays and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. He has testified before Congress in support of net neutrality, and is an honorary member of the Harvard Lampoon. Kulash has also been tapped as an industry thought leader, speaking at events including the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, SXSW, and The Future of Storytelling, as well as serving on the juries of the D&AD Awards, The One Show, and the Webby Awards.
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