Director Kurt Mattila has joined Supply&Demand for commercial representation. The recipient of a Student Academy Award, Mattila has gone on to turn out campaigns for clients including BMW, Ford and Red Bull. Longer format work includes the Summit Entertainment feature Lies and Alibis as well as the documentary Art in Video Games for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Mattila entered the industry as founding member/partner of Imaginary Forces where work on assorted feature film sequences included the dream sequences for Minority Report, a hypnotic blur of expressionistic moments that successfully foreshadow the genesis of future crimes. Mattila is currently recreating the same sequences for the Minority Report pilot currently being made for Fox and DreamWorks. Design and editing duties led to Mattila forming Prologue Pictures with Alexander Dervin, producing live-action narrative, documentary and spot work. Most recently, Mattila completed a live-action teaser to launch Syfy’s new series Ascension, designing and developing the creative look for the show….
The One Club has announced that the One Show entry system is now open, months ahead of last year’s submission period. The non-profit has introduced a quarterly entry system for The One Show, as well as a set of public relations categories. The quarterly system divides the entry periods into four deadlines, beginning in July and ending with the usual final deadline at the end of January. The first quarter deadline is August 14; the second is September 30; the third is November 30; and the fourth, the last one before the show, is January 29. Two shortlists will be announced: the first in early October and the second in early April. The quarterly entry system benefits the creatives entering, the judges reviewing and the quality of the work at The One Show, according to Kevin Swanepoel, CEO of The One Club who noted that agencies are able to submit their work when it’s fresh and the media files required to submit an entry are readily available. Meanwhile, judges will have the opportunity to review work when it’s topical and will have less pressure to review work from the entire year all at once. The One Club also introduced a group of public relations categories, including Consumer, CSR, Non-Profit, Innovation and Craft….
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