Immortal Films, a multi-disciplinary image-making and production studio based in the U.K., has secured its first representation in the U.S., coming aboard the roster of L.A.-based JOJX Studio.
Founded by artists Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones in partnership with EP Campbell Beaton, Immortal Films has a body of work which includes film and still imagery set to the music of UNKLE for fashion magazine Beauty Papers, sleek and edgy film and print campaigns launching Louis Vuitton’s Canvas of the Future prototypes, and the lush and captivating hyper-real dreamscape of Björk’s video “Utopia.” In addition, the studio has produced genre-bending work for Mugler Angel, Cartier, Vogue Japan and YSL, Veuve Clicquot and Kimono Roboto.
Jackson Morton, partner and EP at JOJX, said that Immortal Films represents “a much bigger extension of our company’s love for cutting-edge creativity that goes beyond traditional borders of live action film. Immortal isn’t scared of pushing a commercial concept to experiential realms. We feel that this day and age is the perfect time for brands to experiment more with new ways to communicate to new viewers and overly savvy customers.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More