DreamWorks SKG, Los Angeles, has entered into an agreement to acquire the majority interest in Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer animation studio Pacific Data Images (PDI). DreamWorks has owned 40 percent of PDI for several years, but now doubles that stake with a deal to acquire Carl Rosendahl’s share of the Northern California studio. PDI founder/chairman Rosendahl decided to step down from his post to pursue outside creative interests. PDI becomes PDI/DreamWorks, and will continue to be active in multiple disciplines, including spot production. In addition to its Palo Alto headquarters, PDI/DreamWorks plans to develop a production facility in Southern California, PDI/DreamWorks South….Director Rolf Gibbs—whose short films have gained recognition at assorted venues, including the Sundance Film Festival—has secured his first commercial representation, signing with bicoastal Bedford Falls….Tabletop director/cameraman Garry Sato of Santa Monica-headquartered Sato Films is entering into an affiliation with Green Dot Films, Santa Monica….New York-based 11/11 Productions has signed co-directing team Riad Galayini & Josh Hayes, and formed an affiliation with New York-based post/visual effects shop Blink fx.…Concrete Productions, Dallas, has signed director Christopher Cutri, who spent the past year at Cielo Films, Santa Monica….Comedy and dialogue director Joe Scudiero has joined Perretti Productions, New York, for East Coast representation….Director Ron Jacobs has come aboard the roster of get it…pictures, Los Angeles….L.A.-headquartered Milk and Honey Production Services has expanded its international network to include Italy and North Africa through an alliance with Rome-based production and production services company Panorama Films….Michael King has become exec./head of production at Cognito Films, Santa Monica, the shop headed by executive producer Alan Landau….Guy Hudson has been named creative producer at San Francisco-based digtial production and design studio Western Images. In his new role, Hudson will serve as producer/visual effects manager; he comes over from Industrial Light+Magic, San Rafael, where he served as a visual effects supervisor on features and commercials….Santa Monica-based 525 Studios has hired Catherine Adams Wells as executive producer. Her background includes having served as executive producer for Backyard Productions, Chicago, as well as director of commercial production for Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., and a senior producer at bicoastal/international Propaganda Films….
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More