Creative postproduction boutique Uppercut has brought Steve Cokonis on board as VFX supervisor. The addition of Cokonis rounds out the shop’s six-member VFX team, which is led by head of VFX John Geehreng in NYC. Uppercut has a Los Angeles office opening this fall and the hiring of Cokonis underscores expansion and a rapidly growing team on the West Coast. Cokonis began cultivating his love for graphic design and video production in his native Philadelphia before relocating to Los Angeles in 2006 to deepen his craft. Two years later, he landed a job at The Mill as a Flame assistant, working his way up through the ranks to become a lead Flame artist in 2013. In the summer of 2016, Cokonis supervised 300 VFX shots for director Brian Buckley’s feature film Pirates of Somalia, starring Al Pacino, Melanie Griffith, and Evan Peters. Cokonis continued to broaden his postproduction suite of skills, earning a promotion to VFX supervisor in 2017 while at The Mill. After deciding to spread his wings and freelance, Cokonis split his time working with several award-winning studios, including KEVIN, Framestore, Jamm, and The Mill. He recently collaborated with director F Gary Gray on the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show trailer for Pepsi. Over the course of his career, Cokonis has collaborated on notable commercial projects including “Web” for Skittles with director Wayne McClammy, “Jane” for HP with Lance Acord, “Tiempo De Ser Heros” for Nike with Loren Denis, “Two Worlds” for Acura by Mark Jenkinson, “Recycle the Dollar” for IBM by Fredrik Bond, and “Sea Captain” for Old Spice by Tom Kuntz. Cokonis’ work on music videos spans a variety of genres, including collaborations with Pharrell Williams, director Edgar Wright, Bonobo, and Run the Jewels….
“Captain America: Brave New World” Tops Weak Weekend At The Box Office
"Captain America: Brave New World" kept falling but still hovered above all others at a weak weekend box office.
The latest Disney-Marvel offering brought in another $15 million according to studio estimates Sunday, when most of Hollywood's attention was on the Oscars.
The Anthony Mackie-led "Captain America: Brave New World" opened strong at about $120 million on a three-day weekend last month, but plunged to $28.2 million last week in one of the most significant second-week drops for a Marvel movie. It's earned $163.7 since its release.
It was slammed by many critics and audiences, failing to bring the Marvel reset some had hoped for. That task now falls to May's "Thunderbolts" and July's "Fantastic Four: First Steps." But "Captain America" will face little competition through March, and could remain at No. 1 for a while.
The weekend's only significant new release, Focus Features' "Last Breath," earned just $7.8 million. The based-on-a-true-story adventure starring Woody Harrelson, Simi Liu and Chris Lemons is about a routine deep-sea diving mission that goes terribly wrong when a young diver is stranded some 300 feet below the surface.
It got strong reviews, with Lindsey Bahr of The Associated Press praising the "white-knuckle experience" and "pure suspense and anxiety" it brings.
At No. 3 was Oz Perkins' "The Monkey," which brought in $6.4 million for a two-week total of $24.6 million. It's among the strongest openings for indie distributor Neon, whose film "Anora," and its director Sean Baker could make a major mark at the Oscars later Sunday.
"The Monkey" marks another successful low-budget collaboration between Perkins and Neon, whose "Longlegs" brought in $126.9 million globally last year.
"Paddington... Read More