Burning Suits, LLC, a holding company, closed a transaction last week transferring ownership of New York Media Group (including Post Perfect, Lower East Side, East Side Mix, Superdupe Recording, Crush Digital Vido and arc.light) to a group that includes participation by David Carmen, Washington lobbyist and co-founder of bicoastal Anonymous Content, and post industry vet Steve Hendricks, former president/CEO of Virgin Digital Studios. Carmen and Hendricks, who are part of Burning Suits, will serve as chairman and CEO, respectively of New York Media Group….Italian director Luca Lucini has signed with Storm, Brooklyn, N.Y., for U.S. representation. Lucini helms non-U.S. spots through Film Master, Rome and Milan, Italy. Additionally, Budweiser’s "Whassup?" helmer, Charles Stone III, has finished directing the Dimension Films feature Paid In Full, and is once again available for commercials via Storm….At press time, feature filmmaker Martin Scorsese was shooting a spot project in New York via Los Angeles-headquartered Top Dog Films, a division of bicoastal RSA USA and London-based RSA Films. The assignment is for telecommunications company Orange out of Euro RSCG BETC, Paris….Director Tony Lee has joined Big Picture Communications, New York. Lee’s previous roost was the now defunct Barracuda Films…. Virginia Lee, who helms commercials in tandem with director Mark Coppos of bicoastal Coppos Films, has made her solo directorial debut on a Yoplait spot for DDB Chicago….Christie Cash, former executive producer at audio postproduction company AudioBanks, Santa Monica, has joined Crew Cuts/West, Santa Monica, as executive producer….Pat Joseph, a co-founder and part owner of The Mill, has been named managing director of the London-based visual effects/post company. Joseph will report directly to former managing director Robin Shenfield, who serves as group CEO. Back in February, original Mill founders Shenfield, Joseph and James Morris bought the company from outside investors….JSM, New York, has added Rene Arsenault and Michaelangelo L’Acqua, co-founders of Onda Productions, to its roster. Arsenault and L’Acqua, who are known for their remixes of runway shows and designers, will be producing industry music tracks for fashion and beauty accounts at JSM….
Review: Writer-Director Mark Anthony Green’s “Opus”
In the new horror movie "Opus," we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the '90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as "Thriller," "Hotel California" and "Nebraska." If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that's the first sign "Opus" is going to stumble.
John Malkovich leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull "The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri back to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams.
Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called "Caesar's Request" — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It's like a golden ticket.
Edebiri's Ariel is a one of those invited. She's 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She's ambitious but has no edge. "Your problem is you're middle," she's told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she's just a note-taker. Edebiri's self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here.
It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they're murderous. This is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" crossed with Mark Mylod's "The Menu."
It's always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror... Read More