The production partnership of CinemaStreet Pictures and director Ed Han has signed for national representation with the independent sales agent Dana Dubay. CinemaStreet is the New York-based production company founded by former agency producer and independent film producer Dana Offenbach. Most recently, Han and CinemaStreet helped launch the newest addition to the Roomba line for iRobot, the Roomba 980. As a former ad agency creative director, Han served as creative director on the work and also provided strategic direction….
Riedel Communications, provider of real-time video, audio, data, and communications networks, has hired broadcast industry veteran Joe Commare as marketing and sales manager, North America. Commare will design and implement new marketing strategies geared specifically toward North American markets as well as provide sales and technical support when needed. Before joining Riedel, Commare served as an account director for Wall Street Communications, a marketing and PR firm that caters exclusively to companies in the broadcast niche. He managed the account of Riedel Communications globally, along with several other clients serving the worldwide broadcast and media industry….
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