King and Country (K&C), a Santa Monica, Calif.-based design-centric production company, has added Danita Jo (DJ) Fox as director of business development, commercials. In her new role, Fox will work closely with K&C partner/executive producer Jerry Torgerson to establish and maintain relationships with the company’s ad agency clients. She will also collaborate with K&C’s independent sales reps in different territories across the U.S. and Canada. Fox was most recently director of brand development/producer at Butcher Post, where she managed new business, sales, bidding, PR and marketing for the editorial and VFX company. Prior to that, she’s held business development, sales and executive producer roles in the audio post and sound side of business for more than 20 years, including Zona Playa (part of Margarita Mix/LA Studios), POP Sound, Eleven Sound, Endless Noise, and Finger Music and Sound. Over the course of her career, she has collaborated with such clients as Nike, Xbox, Gatorade, Adidas, EA Games, Sony and Mitsubishi. Fox got her start in 1987 working for Richard Perry (then president of A&R at Warner Brothers Records) at Studio 55, where such music greats as Rod Stewart, Chaka Kahn, and Rickie Lee Jones recorded some of their most famous records. In 2015, Fox founded Foxey Reps, representing a diverse range of talent, including editors, directors, composers, colorists and VFX/animation artists….
Cinematographer Steve Holleran, whose credits include The Land (director Steve Caple for Netflix) has signed with Dattner Dispoto and Associates (DDA) for representation….
Meanwhile DDA has booked DP Noah Greenberg on the feature film Coin Heist being directed by Emily Hagins, and DP Manuel Billeter on the Marvel/Netflix TV series Iron Fist….
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More