Bicoastal production company Ruckus Films has brought director Tim Wilkime aboard its roster of comedic talent for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. Wilkime is a director with expert comedic timing as reflected in work for Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show Starring James Corden, and other major comedy players. Signing with Ruckus marks Wilkime’s first representation in the advertising arena.
Wilkime launched his comedy career as a staff director at CollegeHumor.com where he directed over 50 sketches including the Webby Award-winning viral sensation If Google Was a Guy which, nearly 10 years later continues to rake in clicks with over 52 million views. He also directed episodes of Adam Ruins Everything and his short film Milton premiered at SXSW in 2019 where it won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award.
He currently lives in New York where he directs for SNL. He’s helmed several hit sketches, including “The Black Lotus,” “BeReal” and “Wing Pit” as well as a wide assortment of others by SNL comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy.
“As a long time fan of [director] JJ Adler’s work, I was excited for her when she founded Ruckus Films,” Wilkime said, “Years later, I’m even more thrilled to be joining Ruckus’s roster of directing savants. I look forward to collaborating with them and creating work that is hilarious and impactful.”
Ruckus managing partner Greg Jones said, “Tim’s comedy style is so fresh, spontaneous, and inventive, but it’s also sneakily calibrated to appeal to the widest possible audience. Given his background directing for so many massive comedy platforms, it’s no wonder those skills are so sharp. Across advertising, directors with backgrounds in sketch have proven how seamlessly those comedic skills translate to 30-second stories. Tim is going to be no exception here. We’re so excited to be part of what’s next for him.”
And to avoid any potential confusion, Tim’s last name used to be Wilkerson, but after marrying wife Madelyn Wilkime, he felt entitled to her last name. So now, it’s Wilkime.
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