Filmmaker Paul Cummings, who works in commercials, music videos and shorts–with a specialty in stop motion–has signed with Los Angeles creative studio DUCK….New York-based Sonic Union has formed an alliance with veteran voice casting director Maria Pappalardo, who’ll be screening talent for television, film, web and radio, working out of the popular Union Square studios. Pappalardo opens the independent casting service, Pappalardo Casting, following 15 years as BBDO N.Y.’s head of voiceover casting where she cast thousands of large-scale campaigns for the likes of Visa, GE, Pepsi and Gillette…..Peepshow Post Productions, London and N.Y., has brought editor Dean Gonzalez, formerly of Final Cut, aboard its roster. Gonzalez is experienced in spots, music videos and is currently working on a documentary feature, The History of Canadian Humor (If It’s Not Too Much Trouble), produced by The Sibs and directed by Rob Cohen who has written for such shows as Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and Mr. Show….
Harris Dickinson Toys With Ambiguity In “Babygirl” While Keeping a Secret From Nicole Kidman
Harris Dickinson was nervous to approach Nicole Kidman.
This would not necessarily be notable under normal circumstances, but the English actor had already been cast to star opposite her in the erotic drama "Babygirl," as the intern who initiates an affair with Kidman's buttoned-up CEO. They'd had a zoom with the writer-director Halina Reijn, who was excited by their playful banter and sure that Dickinson would hold his own. And yet when he found himself at the same event as Kidman, shyness took over. He admitted as much to Margaret Qualley, who took things into her own hands and introduced them.
"She helped me break the ice a bit," Dickinson said in a recent interview.
On set would be an entirely different story. Dickinson might not be nearly as "puckishly audacious" as his character Samuel but in the making of "Babygirl," he, Kidman and Reijn had no choice but to dive fearlessly into this exploration of sexual power dynamics, going to intimate, awkward, exhilarating and meme-able places. It's made the film, in theaters Christmas Day, one of the year's must-sees.
"There was an unspoken thing that we adhered to," Dickinson said. "We weren't getting to know each other's personal lives. When we were working and we were the characters, we didn't veer away from the material. I never tried to attach all of the history of Nicole Kidman. Otherwise it probably would have been a bit of a mess."
His is a performance that reconfirms what many in the film world have suspected since his debut seven years ago as a Brooklyn tough questioning his sexuality in Eliza Hittman's "Beach Rats": Dickinson is one of the most exciting young talents around.
Dickinson, 28, grew up in Leytonstone, in East London — the same neck of the woods as... Read More