There’s a significant addition to the family of post/effects facilities under the umbrella of publicly traded, Englewood, Colo.-based cable and communications conglomerate Liberty Media Corp. Liberty Media subsidiary Four Media Company (4MC), a Burbank-based public company, announced at press time that it had bought the lion’s share of post studios held by the London-headquartered Virgin Media Group. Per the deal, valued at approximately $40 million, 4MC has acquired 525 Studios, Santa Monica, a pair of London facilitiesaRushes and West One Televisionaand Mexico City’s Virgin Television de MexicoA.Word is that director Craig Gillespie is coming aboard Los Angeles-headquartered Morton Jankel ZanderA.Director Brian Belefant, most recently with bi coastal WildLife Management, has joined bicoastal Bedford FallsA.Director Paul Holahan, formerly of bicoastal Picture Park, has signed with Los Angeles-headquartered Scream, the shop headed by executive producer Charles SaliceA.Director Gavin O’Connor, producer/director/writer of the feature Tumbleweeds, has entered the spot directing arena via bicoastal production house Zooma ZoomaA.San Francisco-based animation studio Wild Brain has added directors Charlie Canfield and Robert ValleyA.Director Brian Mack has joined Big Fish Films, Dal- lasA.Feature filmmaker Jon Amiel (Entrapment, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Copycat and Sommersby) has wrapped his first U.S. commercial via bicoastal Flying Tiger Films, for Pontiac and D’Arcy, Troy, Mich.A.Austin, Texas-based commercial music production house Tequila Mockingbird is opening a Southern California operation. Tequila Mockingbird West will be headed by Los Angeles-based sound designer/composer Kathryn KorniloffA.Editor Brian Durkin, formerly of New York-based Go Robot!, has joined FilmCore/Santa MonicaA.
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