New York-based GL-X, a division of Grand Large Inc., has signed director Tobias Perse, formerly of Paranoid US, for exclusive representation in TV commercials, viral campaigns and music videos. Perse’s latest work includes a series of comical commercials for Bodog, an online entertainment and gambling site. His feature-length documentary, Persons of Interest, covering the governmental detainment of Arab and Muslim immigrants post the September 11th terrorist attacks, was selected for competition at both the Sundance and Rotterdam film festivals and won the Amnesty International Humanitarian Film Award. Perse has also directed campaigns for Intel and Air Berlin….Director Danny J. Boyle, formerly of Motiv Films, Los Angeles, and executive producer Jeff Maier, who had been a senior producer at Draftfcb, Irvine, Calif., have joined Santa Monica, Calif.-based Socket Films….Los Angeles-based Hello & Co. has expanded its music videos division with a newly inked deal for Academy@Hello! to produce all stateside projects for the music video directors at London-based Academy Films. Reciprocally, Academy will produce HELLO! directors’ music video work in the U.K. The first project under the alliance is Academy director Jonathan Glazer’s new music video for The Dead Weather track, “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” which premiered on July 11 during the TV premiere of the feature film Wanted on Cinemax. The video features a violent showdown between The Dead Weather lead singers Jack White and Alison Mosshart, and was produced in the U.S. by Academy@Hello! The Academy@Hello directorial roster includes Glazer, Walter Stern, Corin Hardy, Brothers Quay, Kim Gehrig, Lynne Ramsey, Martin De Thurah, Nick Gordon, Si&Ad and Tom Haines….Anthony Nelson, formerly senior integrated producer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), has joined integrated producton company Superfad (New York, Culver City, Calif., and Seattle) as executive director. At CP+B, Nelson spearheaded projects for such clients as Microsoft, Volkswagen, Guitar Hero, Burger King, Geek Squad and Dominos….U.K. visual effects/post house Golden Square has hired producer Steph Thompson who brings to the company industry experience spanning the ad agency, production and post arenas. Thompson started her career at The Moving Picture Company, London, in 1993 and left in ’95 to become a production assistant for Lowe Howard Spink where she worked for two years on brands ranging from Stella Artois to Tesco. In ’97 she became a TV producer at JWT Sydney. Upon returning to the U.K. in ’98, she went to Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe until ’01 when she began freelancing for agencies such as BBH, Fallon and VCCP, working on major jobs including the launch TV campaign for Coca Cola Zero. Thompson’s most recent position was as head of sales for Feel 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