Chelsea Pictures has secured talent management agency Get Reehl/Get Davis–headed by founder/partner Jill Reehl–to handle representation on the West Coast. Get Reehl/Get Davis joins Chelsea sales team of Denise Blate Roederer of RHODA on the East Coast, and Doug Stephen & Partners in the Midwest. Chelsea’s directorial roster includes David Gordon Green, Lauren Greenfield, Alex Gibney, Bruce Hunt, Jack Cole, Nadav Kander, Amir Bar-Lev,, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Thomas Beug, Alan Poul, Gregory Jacobs, Matthias Zentner, Peyton Wilson and Erik Madigan Heck…..
Innovative Artists has added agent Lisa Holguin to its commercial department where she will work with Robbyn Foxx. Holguin comes over from Dattner Dispoto and Associates with more than 20 years of experience….
Production designer Perry Newberry has joined Innovative Artists for representation in commercials. Newberry has traveled all over the world and has worked with production companies like Biscuit, Tool, and Smuggler. He has worked with brands like Mercedes, Netflix, Michelin, and Adidas. He is based in Barcelona and London but also works in the U.S….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More