At press time, SHOOT got word that director Larry Williams had died. He had apparently collapsed while walking his dog near the family’s Pasadena home on Monday evening (5/31). Williams and his wife, Leslie Libman, co-directed commercials through bicoastal Coppos Films….Two antirunaway production bills offering tax incentives to producers who film in California have cleared another hurdle in the State Assembly. At press time, both proposed measures were passed out of the California Assembly’s Appropriations Committee. Earlier the legislation gained a go-ahead from the Assembly’s Tax & Revenue Committee. Stay tuned….Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials, Hollywood, has signed director Walter Santucci who’s perhaps best known in the independent animation community for his "Evil Cat" cartoons which have appeared in Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival, as well as Manga Entertainment’s General Chaos animation tour…..Executive producer Matt Grayson has exited Mad River Post/Santa Monica…. Burbank-headquartered, publicly traded Four Media Co. (4MC) has bought London-based postproduction facility TVI Limited from Carlton Communications Plc for $10.1 million in cash. The acquisition expands 4MC’s international reach. TVI’s capabilities include editing, film transfer, sound editing and mixing, and DVD and CD-ROM authoring. 4MC is parent to such shops as Riot and POP, Santa Monica, and Encore Hollywood….Morty’s Digitorial, New York, has been relaunched under the name Slingshot Edit and Post. The company partners are president/editor Morty Ashkinos, VP/editor Bruce Ashkinos and executive producer Steve Ashkinos. The creative staff is rounded out by editors Jim Rubino and Jeffrey Bair; along with online/effects editor Kim Flood….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More