Director Steve Beck has come aboard bicoastal/international Believe Media. Most recently with bicoastal Reactor Films, Beck is best known for his effects-driven directorial work. Earlier this year, Beck helmed the feature film Ghost Ship, slated for theatrical release Oct. 25….Director Blair Hayes is set to join Area 51 Films, Santa Monica….Park Pictures, New York, has inked director Lara Shapiro for spots….Dan Bryant has been named COO/ executive producer of Backyard Productions, the Venice, Calif.-headquartered production house with an office in Chicago. His primary responsibilities are to grow and manage Backyard Productions and its existing divisions, including Transistor Studios and Backyard Entertainment, plus another new division to be announced shortly. He will be working in partnership with Backyard founders Blair Stribley and Roy Skillicorn….Studio V-12, Santa Monica, best known as a design/production company, has launched a commercial division, V12 Commercials. The new venture recently hired Bill Hewes to serve as executive producer and added director Linzi Knight, formerly repped by Reactor Films….. D’Arcy Masius Benton and Bowles will be absorbed by several agencies, including Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett USA, as part of a reorganization by Paris-headquartered Publicis, parent company to the ad shops….Mixer Jason Seidman has come aboard Photomag, New York….Joe Sweet, the copywriter who played a key role in the creation of "The Hire" series of Web-based short films for BMW, died Oct. 4 while attending a media trade show in Cannes. He was 43. Sweet’s contributions leading to the genesis of "The Hire" came while he was a group creative director at Fallon Minneapolis. He left that ad shop earlier this year, devoting himself to the making of his own movie. Sweet’s wife, Germaine, has set up a memorial fund. Contributions can be sent to the Joe Sweet Film Fund, 3820 Vincent Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55410…. Florida-based Flame artist/designer Bob Geuder died suddenly on October 4 while vacationing on the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire. Geuder was slated to become creative director at MT-Miami—the postproduction division of BVI LLC, Coconut Grove, Fla., acquired through its merger with Manhattan Transfer-Miami (SHOOT 4/17, p. 1). Most recently, Geuder had worked as a Flame artist/designer with Coconut Grove-based Deep Blue Sea—a visual effects house under the aegis of BVI LLC….
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