Filmmakers Jacob Wasserman, Adam Donald and Ant Gentile announced the formation of Hidden Content, a full-service virtual reality. Their first project was unveiled yesterday at the Tribeca Film Festival with the world premiere of their narrative 360 Cinema project The Caretaker, the first installment of an original horror anthology series.
Created by Wasserman and Donald as well as filmmaker Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes Of My Mother, Piercing), The Caretaker stars Adelaide Clemens, Tom Lipinski, Clara Wong and Diana Agostini, was produced by Max Born and Schuyler Weiss and executive produced by Gentile and Kimberly Parker. The pilot was a co-production with RealMotion Inc. and audio services were provided by Hobo Audio.
Hidden Content has also teamed with film producer and financier Max Born to produce and acquire a slate of VR films and series, as well as develop a VR/AR distribution platform.
Wasserman, Donald and Gentile have been working in the virtual reality and 360 cinema space for some time, having produced high profile VR commercials and branded content experiences, including Samsung’s “Anatomy of Ski” 4D VR Experience for the 2018 Winter Olympics, featuring Olympic gold medalist downhill skier Bode Miller and “360 Meals,” a journey inside celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s Michelin-starred flagship restaurant, Daniel.
The trio’s first narrative effort, the interactive VR thriller Broken Night starring Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2017 and was also featured at Cannes NEXT 2017.
Hidden Content and Max Born are currently in development on three additional VR genre series, and are in talks with outside creators to acquire new content to build out their 2018 project slate.
The Hidden Content Team
Jacob Wasserman
Jacob Wasserman has produced notable and critically acclaimed films including James White (Winner of Sundance NEXT Audience Award, AFI Audience Award), The Eyes of My Mother (Sundance NEXT 2016 Official Selection), virtual reality film Broken Night (2017 Cannes NEXT) with his latest feature films TYREL and Piercing premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. His most recent VR narrative film The Caretaker , which he co-wrote and directed alongside horror director Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes Of My Mother, Piercing), will have its premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Wasserman has also produced and directed several award winning commercials, music videos and virtual reality films for clients including The North Face, Gatorade, The Wall Street Journal, Sony Music and Samsung. He a founding partner of Virtual Reality production company, Hidden Content and is currently based in Los Angeles, California.
Adam Donald
Adam Donald is a director who continues to expand his work and collaborations across all genres from Film and Television to Virtual Reality. He is a founding partner in Hidden Content, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Donald has worked with the world’s top agencies and directed story-telling campaigns for many global brands, including The North Face, Gatorade, Sony, SKYY Vodka, NBA, Budweiser, and American Express, featuring world class artists and athletes Jay Z, Pharell, Diplo, Courtney Love, Venus Williams, Usain Bolt and Elton John, among others.
He is the recipient of several industry awards, including The New Directors Showcase, Clio Advertising Awards, D&AD Awards, as well as VMA nominations. In addition to his commercial work, Donald recently directed a television pilot for TruTV and co-directed the experimental VR dance film, The Gate. This is the second year he has had a film selected for both Tribeca and Cannes Film festivals.
Ant Gentile
Ant Gentile has worked in audio and video production for over 10 years, serving as creative director and producer for clients including Samsung, ABC, Interscope Records, Atlantic Records, CenturyLink, McGraw-Hill Education, Clearasil, Cengage, 451 Media, and Sun Chemical. Wanting the ability to offer full-service production, Gentile opened a state-of-the-art audio production facility in midtown Manhattan, allowing him to score, mix and sound design projects for his clients, as well as start a music publishing and podcast division.
In addition, Gentile has executive produced two feature length documentaries and has raised significant strategic funding for both entertainment projects and tech start-ups. With a passion for storytelling in new media, as well as relationships tech and VC companies, Gentile joined with commercial and narrative filmmakers Adam Donald and Jake Wasserman and producing VR content under a new banner, Hidden Content.
Nicolas Pesce
Nicolas Pesce’s debut feature The Eyes Of My Mother was one of the most critically acclaimed horror films of 2016. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT section and was released theatrically in the U.S. by Magnolia Pictures.
In 2013, Pesce developed an animated series starring Malcolm MacDowell, J.K. Simmons, and Colin Quinn and most recently he completed his second feature film Piercing , based on the Ryu Murakami novel by the same title. Piercing premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight section and stars Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Maria Dizzia, and Marin Ireland. Nick is writing and will direct the upcoming The Grudge for Good Universe and Ghost House Pictures.
Pesce is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently lives in Los Angeles.
Max Born
Born is a film producer and financier and his production of Josh Mond’s James White was the start of what would be a successful collaboration with Borderline Films, with whom he went on to produce Nicolas Pesce’s debut feature The Eyes Of My Mother. Shortly thereafter he developed Piercing with Pesce and Borderline, which Pesce directed and premiered at Sundance 2018.
In 2017, Born collaborated with Sebastián Silva on his film TYREL, which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. He is currently developing both adapted and original content with Pesce, Silva, and Antonio Campos of Borderline. More recently, Born has refocused on development financing and has already started to build a small library of IP to adapt with more filmmakers.
Also in 2018, Born produced a VR short called The Caretaker, which will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and screen in Cannes NEXT. Along with production and post-production partners in this emerging medium, Born is looking to create what would essentially be a small VR studio.
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