Bicoastal Epoch Films has acquired Kirt Gunn & Associates to facilitate the launch of Dandelion, a N.Y.-based independent company dedicated to creating programming and entertainment sponsored by brands. The new venture will be headed by managing partners Kirt Gunn, whose firm has a track record in new media content creation, strategy and production (Mercury’s Meet The Lucky Ones online series, the Volvo: Drive for Life Xbox video game), and Epoch mainstays, partner/executive producer Jerry Solomon and founder/exec producer Mindy Goldberg. Greg Schultz, an Emmy award-winning producer with branded entertainment and television production experience (Mad Men, Iconoclasts, Seinfeld and Superman, Meet The Lucky Ones), will lead day-to-day operations as executive producer. Tara Averill in N.Y. and Mal Ward in L.A. will serve as co-heads of sales and development…..Faris Yakob has joined McCann Erickson, New York, as exec VP/chief technology strategist. He comes over from Naked Communications, New York, where he was chief strategist. At McCann, Yakob will report directly to Lori Senecal, president of the N.Y. agency….London studio Hibbert Ralph Animation has brought director George Bowler on board. Already at his new roost, he has secured a Nokia-sponsored short film…..New York-based content-creation studio HUSH has added veteran exec producer Casey Steele. The move is part of a growth initiative as HUSH, known for its work in the nontraditional and integrated arenas, looks to ramp up in the commercial and broadcast sectors. Steele earlier served as director of design for network G4TV, and held exec producer positions with such shops as Stardust, Logan and Brand New School….
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