Visual effects, animation, and finishing post house SHIPPING + HANDLING has enlisted New York-based talent management company Sarah Jenks Repping to handle its commercial representation on the East Coast. Jenks signs on following VFX creative director Jerry Spivack’s recently joining the SHIPPING + HANDLING team. SHIPPING + HANDLING comes aboard a Sarah Jenks Repping roster that includes Collective New York, Homestead, The Bridge Co., Zuma4 Productions, and Corra Films and directors such as Silverio Canto, Bad Hombres, Alexander Haines, and Steve Green. SHIPPING + HANDLING’s recent projects include ad work for Oakley Prizm, Green Day’s “Father of All…” music video, and Oscar-winning director Errol Morris’ new docu-film American Dharma. Rounding out its sales force, SHIPPING + HANDLING is also repped by Hustle on the West Coast and in Texas….
Los Angeles-based production studio Stept has signed Ezra Burke and Shane Harris of Content Chemics to handle representation on the West Coast. Stept’s integrated creative, production and post departments now house over 30 team members and have most recently delivered work for Oakley, GEICO, Under Armour, Adidas and The North Face…..
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