Caviar has added director Miguel Campaña to its London, Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels rosters for commercial representation. His body of work spans such brands as Canon, Land Rover, Orange and Volkswagen, among others. Campaña’s two most recent recognizable spots for Carlsberg featuring Mads Mikkelsen are “Better With Beer” for Carlsberg O.O. and “Chamber of Secrets.” The director’s work has garnered accolades at such competitions as the Cannes Lions, Clios and Ciclope. And his acclaimed short film The Following Year with Rachel Keller has been selected for more than 50 international film festivals….
Toronto production company Merchant has added filmmaker and writer Chandler Levack to its roster for commercial representation in Canada. Her credits include the 2017 short We Forgot to Break Up, which played at both TIFF and SXSW, and her feature film debut I Like Movies, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year and was named Best Canadian Picture by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. Levack has also directed music videos for bands including Toronto punk act PUP, which earned her back-to-back Juno nominations in 2015 and 2016. Her latest film, entitled Anglophone, was among 32 feature-length projects that recently received funding from Telefilm Canada….
Publicis Groupe has acquired Publicis Sapient AI Labs, an innovative artificial intelligence research and development joint venture launched in 2020 in partnership between Publicis Sapient, Elder Research and Tquila. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Publicis Sapient AI Labs will fully become part of Publicis Sapient, Publicis Groupe’s digital business transformation company. The acquisition will further strengthen Publicis Sapient’s data & AI capabilities and enable the company to develop innovative solutions across industries for a wide range of applications, such as generative AI, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision and autonomous systems. Transforming the way enterprises interact and understand their customers, Publicis Sapient AI Labs combines Publicis Sapient’s more than 30 years of global delivery of its SPEED (Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering and Data & AI) capabilities with Elder Research’s 28 years of expertise in the multidisciplinary fields of data science, AI and machine learning, and Tquila’s record of hiring and rapidly scaling new technology services practices worldwide. The highly experienced AI and data science professionals from Publicis Sapient AI Labs will become part of the company’s existing data and AI practitioners, together propelling client enterprises into the era of advanced analytics, data-driven insights and intelligent solutions….
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