Antoine Fuqua, Marc Forster, team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to each direct a :60
Walmart has secured feature filmmakers to direct three :60s that will run during commercial breaks of the Feb. 26th Oscar telecast on ABC. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer, last year’s The Magnificent Seven) is set to direct one of the ads, as are Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner) and the team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (The Interview).
The premise of each Walmart :60 centers on “how every receipt tells a story” with the directors challenged to bring their visions to life.
The three creative films are part of Walmart’s larger multi-year partnership with the Academy Awards that is aimed at highlighting Walmart’s commitment to the art of storytelling. Walmart will also be making a $250,000 donation to The Academy Grants Program for FilmCraft.
The six items on the Walmart shopper’s receipt are bananas, paper towels, batteries, a scooter, wrapping paper, and a video baby monitor,
“I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember,” said Fuqua. “This was a wonderful challenge from Walmart that allowed me to do just that: tell an extraordinary story shaped around six ordinary objects.”
Forster stated, “Telling a personal story has always been gratifying to me as an artist. The uniqueness of this challenge from Walmart allowed me to exercise my passion for storytelling in a very exciting way by crafting a story that revolves around people’s everyday needs, wants and desires.”
Tony Rogers, Walmart’s chief marketing officer, said, “For us, this campaign is celebrating creativity and storytelling, something our customers do every day. A Walmart receipt tells a story as diverse as the customers who shop us. We think of our business beyond simple transactions–Walmart is about serving the people behind those receipts and saving them time and money. This unexpected way of telling our brand story is a perfect fit for a night where compelling storytelling is celebrated.”
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