The directing team of Josh Gordon and Will Speck—a.k.a. Speck.Gordon—has joined Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica. The duo had previously been with bicoastal RSA USA….Director Ago Panini has come aboard bicoastal Moxie Pictures for exclusive U.S. representation. He continues to be handled in Italy by Film Master, Rome and Milan….Director Clay Staub is joining bicoastal commercial production house Cylo tvc. He was formerly repped by now defunct The End….Director Nicolai Fuglsig has signed with bicoastal First Look Artists for spot representation in the U.S. Based in Copenhagen, Fuglsig has gained recent recognition on the strength of a short film he helmed for Levi’s that has been playing in Europe….Chris Nelson, who’s worked as a producer the past four years primarily for Ritts/Hayden, has launched a directing career, signing for spot and music video representation with the Los Angeles-based production house….Designer/ director Derich Wittliff, formerly of now-defunct Pittard Sullivan, has joined motion design and commercial production company m.o.d., Los Angeles….New York animation/design studio Pitch has added director/designer Lucy Blackwell to its roster….William Daniels won’t seek re-election as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). He is endorsing Valerie Harper to succeed him. Other candidates include Melissa Gilbert, Eugene Boggs and Angel Tompkins. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to SAG membership in October, with results announced in early November….Kirk Souder, a co-founder/creative partner at Ground Zero, Marina del Rey, Calif., has left the agency to spend more time with his family….Editor Sophie Scoufaras has joined Greene & Grand, New York….Composer/sound designer Sophia Morizet has signed a deal for exclusive spot representation with Spank! Music & Sound Design, Santa Monica and Chicago…. The industry is mourning the passing of music composer/producer Tara Gregory, who was on staff at WAX Music & Sound Design, New York….
Harris Dickinson Toys With Ambiguity In “Babygirl” While Keeping a Secret From Nicole Kidman
Harris Dickinson was nervous to approach Nicole Kidman.
This would not necessarily be notable under normal circumstances, but the English actor had already been cast to star opposite her in the erotic drama "Babygirl," as the intern who initiates an affair with Kidman's buttoned-up CEO. They'd had a zoom with the writer-director Halina Reijn, who was excited by their playful banter and sure that Dickinson would hold his own. And yet when he found himself at the same event as Kidman, shyness took over. He admitted as much to Margaret Qualley, who took things into her own hands and introduced them.
"She helped me break the ice a bit," Dickinson said in a recent interview.
On set would be an entirely different story. Dickinson might not be nearly as "puckishly audacious" as his character Samuel but in the making of "Babygirl," he, Kidman and Reijn had no choice but to dive fearlessly into this exploration of sexual power dynamics, going to intimate, awkward, exhilarating and meme-able places. It's made the film, in theaters Christmas Day, one of the year's must-sees.
"There was an unspoken thing that we adhered to," Dickinson said. "We weren't getting to know each other's personal lives. When we were working and we were the characters, we didn't veer away from the material. I never tried to attach all of the history of Nicole Kidman. Otherwise it probably would have been a bit of a mess."
His is a performance that reconfirms what many in the film world have suspected since his debut seven years ago as a Brooklyn tough questioning his sexuality in Eliza Hittman's "Beach Rats": Dickinson is one of the most exciting young talents around.
Dickinson, 28, grew up in Leytonstone, in East London — the same neck of the woods as... Read More