Michael Oconnor: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: The behavior of a close compatriot of convicted South African rapist and paedophile Dawie de Villiers will be placed under the microscope in a Showmax true crime series airing next month.

Ben Croll A Coenesque caper-gone-wrong and an interactive mother-daughter saga told in bite-size form, XR titles “Kidnapped in Vostok” (pictured) and “Rock, Paper, Scissors” are among the 17 projects leading distributor Astrea picked up in a recent bout of acquisitions. Both titles are playing in competition at this year’s NewImages Festival, while other recent Astrea pickups include the Stanislaw Lem inspired short “Cosmogonic,” the award winning interactive film “Glimpse” from Oscar winner Benjamin Cleary and VR designer Michael O’Connor, and all five episodes of the “Missing Pictures” series, in which filmmakers Abel Ferrara, Tsai Ming-Liang, Catherine Hardwicke, Lee Myung-Se and Naomi Kawase reflect on the dream projects they could never get made.

EXCLUSIVE:  WME has inked Oscar winner Benjamin Cleary, whose short film Stutterer won the Oscar in 2016.

Glimpse, an interactive animated film from Swan Song writer-director Benjamin Cleary and Michael O’Connor and featuring the voices of Taron Egerton and Lucy Boynton, and a VR project following Alex Hannold, the subject of the Oscar-winning climbing documentary Free Solo, have won the prizes of the Cannes XR program that is part of Cannes’ Marché du Film.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorCostume designer Michael O’Connor worked closely with director Francis Lee to create the period look of “Ammonite,” the new drama starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.In conversations, Lee wanted O’Connor to stay away from red, keeping it for scenes of romance and passion between the two lovers.Set in the mid-19th century, O’Connor used a sea color palette for both women.