Manhattan-based production company Cutter Productions has added director Aubrey Smyth to its roster. Her notable work includes campaigns for Pantene Pro-V and TJ Maxx via Grey Advertising, a PSA entitled, “Little Leading Ladies” (in partnership with NYWIFT and Adorama), a Lipton Iced Tea spot that placed first at MoFilm’s international commercial competition, and a runner up Klondike spot, also in MoFilm’s commercial competition. Smyth’s signing with Cutter underscores the woman-owned company’s commitment to celebrating female creatives in the advertising and entertainment businesses. Most recently Cutter launched the first evening of “Cutter Connections,” a mentorship event where female creative professionals offer career advice to the next generation. The event included over 30 mentors, junior mentors, and mentees, and covered the experience and logistics of being a female in these challenging industries. Smyth is currently in development on her feature film Ginger with a Snap….
Traveling Picture Show Company (TPSC) announced that J.T. Petty (The Burrowers, Hellbenders, Gone: VR360) will direct the upcoming thriller, My Only Sunshine, which is based on a script he wrote with Kate Petty. Carissa Buffel, Kevin Matusow, and Steven Chester Prince of TPSC will finance and produce in association with Lawrence Mattis and Matt Smith of Circle of Confusion. CAA is packaging the project and will represent the North American rights, Mary Vernieu and Venus Kanani are currently casting with principal photography set to begin in early 2016 in Ottawa….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More