Owner/Executive Producer
GARTNER
2) I have a love/hate relationship with the sense that all of the walls have come down in the industry. The walls between industry verticals, the walls between markets where talent can be accessed, the walls between who does creative, production and post. This new flat world environment creates great new challenges as well as great new opportunities. The challenge and opportunity is how to create new enterprises that maximize all of the new possibilities in this environment and keep it creatively charged.
5) The economy is ALWAYS a specter that must be watched yet something over which we have no control. Downturns are inevitable and simply must be anticipated and navigated as much as possible. At the same time, it is also imperative to try to stay ahead of the increasingly rapid changes in technology and platforms for our product. Who creates, how we create and the ultimate destination of our endeavors are questions that need to be addressed if one is to thrive going forward. The cultural migration from television to the myriad of other ways to touch the consumer will continue to challenge us all.
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