Roberto Cecchini of bicoastal/international The Artists Company, and John Benson, formerly of Industrial Light+ Magic, San Rafael, Calif., have launched visual effects shop Orphanage Spots, which has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco….David Bowie has signed with bicoastal RSA USA’s Top Dog Films to direct commercials and music videos. This marks the first time that the singer/songwriter/producer/actor has formally been represented as a helmer…. Director Earle Sebastian has signed with bicoastal You Media for exclusive commercial and music video representation….Hollywood-based Orbit Productions has signed director Paul Santana…. Nonfiction spots, Santa Monica, and Paris-based Dissidents have entered into a reciprocal representation and co-production agreement. Both companies represent documentary filmmakers for commercials. Dissidents will handle spot production and representation in France for nonfiction’s U.S. roster. Conversely, nonfiction will do the same in the U.S. for the Dissidents lineup of directors….After nine years, New York-based boutique agency Dweck! is closing its doors. The agency is perhaps best known for its Cannes Gold-Lion winning ads for Dial-A-Mattress, directed by John O’Hagan of bicoastal/international hungry man. At press time, the future plans of Michael Dweck, agency chairman/creative director, were not yet known….Director Sam Raimi is again available for commercials via bicoastal Zooma Zooma, after wrapping principal photography on Sony Pictures Spiderman feature…Kieran Walsh, creative director/senior visual effects/Henry artist, R!OT Manhattan (formerly Manhattan Transfer), New York, has been named as the North American regional winner of the International Quantel Artist of the Year Award presented at last month’s Promax & BDA Conference & Exhibition in Miami…OC Post, the Orange County, Calif.-based editorial, design and finishing house, has changed its name to Stun Gun. Involved primarily in spot work, the boutique continues to be headed by president/CEO Ken Anderson….
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