New York and L.A.-based content creation studio CVLTProduction has tapped Kathrin Lausch to lead as VP of production and client services. She will also assume the same role for creative imaging sister company Urban Studio to meet the diverse needs and cross medium expansion of its growing clientele. Lausch brings two decades of experience as an executive producer after tenures with top drawer production and post companies, collaborating with brand clients such as Lexus, Puma, Perrier and Infiniti. Leading a rapidly expanding studio amidst major industry shifts, Lausch lends her vision and expertise to producing new forms of engaging digital content. Lausch was born and raised in Europe, where she split her time between France and Germany. She earned multiple law degrees and worked for the United Nations as a legal adviser in Geneva. An interest in the arts led her to New York, where she was quickly drawn to the entertainment industry. She moved into a career executive producing with her own two production companies: Passport Films and Compass Films, to usher European talent into the U.S. market. Following shifts into postproduction, she immersed herself further into the digital landscape as EP at B-Reel, Partizan and Ntropic, and head of new business at MPC…..
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More