New York/San Francisco-based content creation/production company Bodega has added Emmy-winning talent Derek Barbanti as sr. writer/producer. Coming to Bodega from Showtime Networks, Barbanti brings a decade of experience in writing, producing, shooting and directing promotional content. He has crafted a wide range of promotional material for the network, including campaigns for all of Floyd Mayweather’s fights following his exclusive signing with the network in 2013, such as the docu-style series All Access and the record-shattering 2015 Mayweather vs. Pacquiao event. In his tenure at Showtime, Barbanti earned two Emmy Awards for his work on All Access and promoting the epic Army-Navy documentary A Game of Honor. Barbanti also traveled globally to work on special features for Showtime’s marquee shows, most notably Homeland….
Aric Ackerman and Guy Pechard have joined The Cavalry Productions as COO/partner and European partner/executive producer, respectively….
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More