Australian TV director Stuart McDonald has joined The Sweet Shop for representation in commercials and branded content worldwide. He brings extensive experience in performance direction and comedic television; his most notable TV series credits include the cult hits Summer Heights High and more recently Angry Boys. McDonald is also well known Down Under for his dramatic work on the Foxtel series Tangle.
McDonald’s desire is to now bring his accomplished skillset in performance direction to the commercial world where he is planning to focus on drama and comedy scripts.
“Whether it’s comedy or drama, as a director I enjoy finding that key that makes it real, the moment to moment,” said McDonald. “I started my career as a screenwriter and as such the heart of my work will always be storytelling.” He was drawn to The Sweet Shop for its forward thinking and global footprint, among other factors.
Paul Prince, CEO/founding partner of The Sweet Shop described McDonald as “a rare talent. He has very obvious strengths with cast and characterisation, in any genre, from comedy to hard-hitting drama, but what really stands out with Stuart is his depth of understanding of the idea within a narrative. His background as screenplay writer serves him very well.”
“Flight Risk” Ascends To No. 1 At Box Office
Critics lambasted it and audiences didn't grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson's "Flight Risk" managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn't a particularly triumphant result for Gibson's directorial follow-up to 2016's "Hacksaw Ridge." Reviews (21% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a "C" CinemaScore) were terrible.
President Donald Trump recently named Gibson a "special ambassador" to Hollywood, along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone.
Going into the weekend, Hollywood's attention was more focused on the Sundance Film Festival and on Thursday's Oscar nominations, which were twice postponed by the wildfires in the Los Angeles region.
The weekend was also a small test as to whether the once more common Oscar "bump" that can sometimes follow nominations still exists. Most contenders have by now completed the bulk of their theatrical runs and are more likely to see an uptick on VOD or streaming.
But the weekend's most daring gambit was A24 pushing Brady Corbet's "The Brutalist" a three–and-a-half-hour epic nominated for 10 Academy Awards, into wide release. Though some executives initially greeted "The Brutalist," which is running with an intermission, as "un-distributable," Corbet has said, A24 acquired the film out of the Venice Film Festival and it's managed solid business, collecting $6 million in limited release.
In wide release, it earned $2.9 million — a far from... Read More