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I must say I am surprised. Sam Smith was so hot earlier this year, I thought his James Bond theme song for “Spectre” would go through the roof. And one week this morning– Friday– “Writing’s on the Wall” soared to number 1 on iTunes.
But one week later, the “Spectre” song is really a bust. It’s number 38 on iTunes, 112 on amazon, and not streaming on Spotify’s US top 50 chart. It is number 8 on the Spotify global, and around 24 on the UK Spotify chart.
On the UK iTunes, the song is number 2. It was briefly number 1.
Basically, “Writing’s on the Wall” has not charted the wall Adele’s “Skyfall” did. Or any of the Sam Smith singles this year.
But, you know, plenty of singles aren’t charting that have been available for a week. Janet Jackson’s “Burnitup” with Missy Elliot, and Lady Gaga’s “Till it Happens to You” aren’t doing much of anything. I am surprised, especially about the Gaga. It’s not easy out there.
TV EXCLUSIVE “Empire” is such a big hit that of course, everyone wants a spin off. But history shouldn’t repeat itself: When “Dynasty” took existing characters and spun off “The Colbys,” it was a disaster. The new show lasted one season. Its theme music was later repurposed for “Star Trek.”
Now I’m told that Lee Daniels is casting a pilot that will feature four young women who are aspiring pop stars. This sounds like an “Empire” spin off, as a record company would be involved. It’s called “Star.”
The ladies’ names in this show are Star, Cotton, Alexandra, and Simone. They’re 18-20 years, black, white, and mixed, and one of them is, naturally, transgender.
What could be interesting is if the four girls gel, and become a singing group that makes records in real life– sort of “The Monkees” become Destiny’s Child. That’s a whole other income stream for everyone, especially Sony Music.
Daniels isn’t diluting “Empire” to make this pilot. “Empire” writer Danny Strong isn’t involved. Instead, Daniels’ writer on the show is Tom Donaghy, whose credits include “The Mentalist” and a Rob Morrow show I guess I missed called “The Whole Truth.”
Michael Moore has finally made a deal for “Where to Invade Next.” The doc which got raves in Toronto will be released by the new company formed by former Radius chiefs Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. They are teaming with Alamo Drafthouse Founder and CEO Tim League to form a new company.
In a statement, Quinn, Janego and League stated: “Together with Michael Moore and his extraordinary new film we hope to remind Americans they have the inalienable right to laugh, especially in an election year. We’re thrilled about our new label and can’t think of a better film or filmmaker to launch with.” The company name and details of the new venture will be revealed at a later date.
Quinn and Janego had had Radius at the Weinstein Company, where they won an Oscar for “20 Feet from Stardom” and released a lot of good documentaries. They said they were leaving TWC to do bigger films. But now it seems like they’re doing the same kind of films, just elsewhere. Ironically, it was Harvey Weinstein who got Moore his biggest success with “Fahrenheit 911.”
EXCLUSIVE George Clooney added lots of excitement to the 15th anniversary screening of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Tuesday night at the New York Film Festival where he joined cast members Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro, along with directors Joel and Ethan Coen, on the red carpet.
But he skipped the swanky after party at the Landmarc Grill. And he disappointed gossip fans who were hoping he and wife Amal, married one year, would have baby news.
Oh brother, where art thou?
John Turturro walked the carpet with his son, who looks like a younger version of his dad and is just as tall. (Turturro stars in another film screening at the New York Film Festival, the excellent Italian movie “Mia Madre,” directed by Nanni Morretti.) Turturro recalled “Oh Brother,’ which was his fourth time working with the Coen brothers, did okay but didn’t win awards although critics talked about the cinematography. “The CD really carried it,” Turturro told me, “A lot of the Coen Brothers movies grow with time.”
Joel Coen was unusually talkative and charming on the carpet – his brother Ethan darted off after a few interviews with television crews. Joel Coen told me he doesn’t generally watch their old movies because he sees too many things he’d have done differently. “This is a rare exception,” he told me of his plans to sit through the film. Of making ‘O Brother,’ he recalled that, “The experience of it was quite joyful. Whenever we do a movie with a lot of music in it it’s always the case, even it can be a funny movie or it can be frankly kind of darker movie like ‘Inside Llewyn Davis,’ but if there’s music in it it’s a joyful experience to make. It’s the music really which I remember mainly.”
Clooney, who looked handsomer than ever if a lot greyer than when the movie first came out, provided all the razzle-dazzle and excitement on the carpet. He had scruffy grey fuzz on his face and wore an elegant black suit and shirt and joked to a similarly dressed man with a television crew that they must have gotten the same memo.
Clooney was charming and joked around with journalists on the red carpet as he usually does.
To a question about his wife Amal, who wasn’t on the carpet but joined him for the screening, he told a journalist he was a “creature of habit” and if left to him would just go down the street to the same sushi bar four nights in a week for dinner but “she says that’s not going to happen.”
Clooney is now making his sixth Coen brothers film, “Hail, Caesar!” and he was asked how the directors had changed since he first worked with them. “They’ve gotten very hard to deal with because they’ve won Oscars and things,” he cracked. “They’ve changed. You can see it by the clothes they wear, by how different they’ve become, and they tend to hit people now which I find really horrible.”
I told Clooney I covered the premiere of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” at the Ziegfeld 15 years ago for the New York Times and recalled talking to his uncle, who was from Kentucky, and helped George with his Southern accent. “He was my voice coach,” he laughed.
I asked the actor about some of his memories of making the film. “I was thinking about that, what were the most amazing moments. There were some shocking moments. I remember we were out in the middle of a field, the field where we were running in the movie, when we heard that John Kennedy Jr.’s plane was missing, and I remember we were out in the middle of nowhere and we all knew something really terrible had happened. Those are those moments that you say you know exactly where you were. Then I think about moments like with Charles Durning where he’s dancing on the stage, this great hefty beautiful hoofer of a guy jumps up on stage and just starts dancing, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. The energy he had at 70, that he just loved doing what he did. It was a great experience all the way around.”
The American Music Awards are like the 7-11 of the awards business, disposable and forgettable. So much so that this year, several of the nominations will be announced on SnapChat on October 13th. If you’re too old to know, Snapchat is the disappearing ink of the current teen generation. Here now, gone in thirty seconds.
The AMAs have also decreed that Joe Jonas and Charlie Puth will announce some of the nominations on “Good Morning America” on October 13th. I know you’re thinking, who? Puth is a good little up and coming singer who probably wouldn’t get a Grammy award, so he’s opted for the AMAs. Jonas is the brother of Nick Jonas, who’s had a couple of singles this year that also probably aren’t Grammy material.
As AMA “nominees” and then “winners” are selected in a darkened room in Encino or over margaritas in Tecate at dawn, Puth and Nick Jonas are likely multiple entries in all categories. If they do well, they will advance to the Dick Clark Productions’ other awards shows this season.
You can bet that another big AMA participant will be Sam Smith, fresh off his Grammy wins last spring. The November 22nd date of the show will fall one month after the release of the James Bond movie “Spectre.” Smith’s theme single, “Writing’s on the Wall,” which seems like a non hit at this point, will seem like a hit there.
Remember: those who perform on the AMAs are not invited to perform on the Grammy Awards. So don’t expect a big Taylor Swift turn out on the AMAs. She’s got to save herself for February, when “1989” should sweep.
Where in the world is Mort Zuckerman? The publisher of the famed 96 year old New York Daily News has been MIA in public for some time now, a head scratcher to be sure. His newspaper is dissolving before our very eyes. Yet Mort– who loves the limelight– has vanished.
Zuckerman, 78, put the Daily News up for sale last February. He was last photographed in mid June at a New York book party. In July, the New York Post ran a story about Zuckerman turning over the sale of the News to his nephews. (Who even knew he had had nephews?) Zuckerman declined to comment. Always a hands on businessman, the Montreal born billionaire and real estate tycoon was suddenly delegating his legacy. Because real estate mogul is not what he wants to be remembered for– pundit, diplomat, publisher is the correct epitaph.
Zuckerman appeared weekly on “The Mclaughlin Group,” a syndicated Sunday political show, until July 31st. He hasn’t been on the show since then. In what seems like his final appearance, Zuckerman — oddly– makes a strong case for Texas governor Rick Perry’s presidential run.
Yes, Rick Perry, who ended his campaign six weeks later on September 11th. He wasn’t a serious candidate. He was barely in the race. The usually astute Zuckerman said on the air(*see video below): “But let me just say, the man whom I think is going to emerge and surprise everybody is Governor Perry of Texas. I was just witness to his performance and he was phenomenal. He was very knowledgeable, very forceful, had a great sense of humor. He is an underestimated candidate.”
The day after the McLaughlin Report aired, Zuckerman issued a statement that he would not be appearing at the East Hampton Artists-Writers softball game. It was the first time he missed the game since 1993.
Three weeks later he called off the sale of the Daily News after there were no takers. The News had been for sale all spring and summer. All through that time Zuckerman made no comment. A few days later, on August 26th, the News shocked the city by putting out its grisliest and most tasteless front page ever. The paper used photographs of the murder of Virginia TV reporter Alison Parker, plus used video of the shooting on its website. Twitter blew up with outrage. Zuckerman, a man of taste, would never have permitted such a thing in the past. Was he going downscale to capture the Post audience? Would that get him a sale?
Zuckerman, for all the hubbub, remained silent.
And then on September 11th, the same day Perry folded his campaign, an announcement from the News: editor in chief
Colin Myler was leaving, and returning to London. Myler– who’d been in the job for three years–an eternity at the News– and Zuckerman had been tight. But with the sale off, and layoffs coming, Myler was expendable. The memo came not just from Zuckerman but was co-signed by William D. Holiber, CEO of the company.
Silence and absence from Mort Zuckerman. A New York Times story a few days ago actually did quote Zuckerman about the Daily News’s shift to digital, although it’s unclear how the quote was issued. It was well crafted at any rate: “It’s a younger audience and that’s what advertisers want. If people don’t want horses and buggies anymore and they want to ride in automobiles, then you better damn well get into the auto business.”
That’s pretty much all that Mort Zuckerman has said as dozens of well known Daily News writers, reporters and editors have left the building. Mike Lupica is pretty much gone. David Hinckley, Jim Farber, Bill Madden, much of the sports section, gone. There is serious doubt that the News will continue to be a seven day paper as the feature, news, and sports sections have been gutted. Word is that the digital edition will aggregate news from other sites, leaving the famed Daily News an empty husk of what it once was.
And Mort? The man who dated Gloria Steinem, attended first nights in tuxedos, traveled the world to meet leaders and captains of industry?
PS Zuckerman’s byline has run in US News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal, as well. But I’m not counting those as appearance. Back in the day, Harold Evans used to write Mort’s editorial every week for US News. Authorship under the Zuckerman byline is fungible at best.
Adele sang in the theme from “Skyfall”: “this is the end.” Let’s hope not. But the new James Bond theme song, for “Spectre,” is a bust.
Sam Smith’s song “Writing’s on the Wall,” was released last Friday to much fanfare. As a matter of course, the song skipped up to number 1 on iTunes and stayed there for a couple of days.
But just five days after release, “Writing’s on the Wall” is down to number 24 — and sinking fast. On amazon.com the single is at number 47. It doesn’t seem to be on the US or Global Spotify charts at all. (Is it possible no one is streaming it? Really?)
Luckily, the song is number 1 in the UK. Maybe Smith is a British thing.
Is the writing on the wall for “Spectre”? Let’s hope not. But the song is not a good harbinger. Basically, it’s awful. It’s a limp noodle version of “Skyfall,” a melodramatic dead end that forebodes no spectre of anything, certainly not excitement.
The single is also simply not radio friendly. It’s long winded, pedestrian, and boring. Your mind wanders before you get to the chorus. And as I noted last Friday, this is the first Bond song I can recall in ages that doesn’t include the title of the movie. It sounds like the theme song for a movie called “Writing’s on the Wall.” Didn’t Smith like the word Spectre?
I hate to say it but it’s important to remember that Smith’s most famous song so far– “Stay with Me”– was nicked from Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” He had to amend the credits and pay Petty.
Choosing a very early songwriter with few credits was a gamble on the part of the Bond people. Maybe they thought they’d get something with a gospel-feel. But Smith simply re-watered “Skyfall.” Also, after Adele’s giant anthem was such a hit, won an Oscar etc, it may have been time for something either more uptempo, rock song like “Live and Let Die,” or a big pop ballad by experts.
Remember too that Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager wrote “Nobody Does it Better.” Carly Simon sang it. Richard Perry produced it. This was like having the 1927 Yankees make your record.
Can “Writings on the Wall” come back? Unlikely.
(PS A total non sequitir— but I totally love “Renegades” by X Ambassadors. Now, that’s a radio single! )
Indie rocker Ryan Adams has made a song for song version of Taylor Swift’s “1989” album. Adams’ “1989” debuted this week with 52,000 copies more or less in CDs and downloads. That’s twice as many as Swift’s original “1989” sold this past week.
Adding streaming, Adams still beat Swift by 10,000 copies. He sold a total of 56,837 versus her 46,318.
For adults, and guys, Adams’s version of the album is just swell. It’s much more appealing than hers for repeat plays. No disrespect to Swift but after a couple of radio plays her long term appeal is to teen girls. Adams gives her great songs a whole new feel. The project works.
For Adams, this was a great idea. Maybe it will spur other rockers to look around at song catalogs like Swift’s. Someone like a Rob Thomas could do a whole “Now 20” kind of album where they do all the top hits of the last six months.
In the old days, this was not so uncommon. Harry Nilsson recorded a whole album of Randy Newman songs that became a classic. Dusty Springfield’s “Dusty in Memphis” was largely devoted to Newman and Carole King. Linda Ronstadt, the Fifth Dimension and Three Dog Night routinely recorded lots of songs by the same songwriters (Hoyt Axton, Newman, etc).
Adams’s “1989” was released in time for Grammy consideration. How funny if his album wins Best Alternative Rock and Swift wins Album of the Year for the same album. Ken Ehrlich, start planning for a fun Grammy night.
Get ready. This is going to be an interesting year at the Oscars.
The movies that are getting into position for Best Picture nominations are not “Driving Miss Daisy” material.
One of the leading candidates is “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy’s exciting telling of how Boston Globe reporters unmasked 90 pedophile priests. The film has an all star cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Liev Schreiber. They will all be contenders in the Best Supporting Acto race.
“Carol” is a love story about two lesbians in 1952 New York. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are the lovers, and their work is exceptional. Director Todd Haynes, the actresses, and cinematographer Ed Lachman will all be up for awards.
“Grandma” stars Lily Tomlin as a hippie grandmother, pot smoking lesbian who’s trying to help her granddaughter raise enough money for an abortion. Tomlin is absolutely sterling, and leads my list of potential Best Actress nominees.
Then there’s the transgender section: Eddie Redmayne plays a man who becomes a woman in “The Danish Girl.” Redmayne is absolutely spot on as he makes the transition with his loyal– and unusually understanding– wife (Alicia Vikander) by his side. Tom Hooper’s movie is exquisite.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if five of the eight or nine Best Picture nominees include “Spotlight,” “The Danish Girl,” “Carol,” “Grandma,” and “Spotlight.” Whoever hosts the Academy Awards is going to have a lot of fun summarizing these films. Really, only Billy Crystal could pull off a proper parody of “The Danish Girl.”
Other potential Best Picture nominees will be less cutting edge sexually: “Bridge of Spies” from Steven Spielberg, “Steve Jobs” from Danny Boyle, Robert Zemeckis’s “The Walk,” Ridley Scott’s “The Martian,” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Hateful Eight” don’t involve gender issues.
So I finally got to see “Carol” this afternoon. Todd Haynes’s period romance starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, with excellent work by Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler, makes this love story a certain Oscar contender in all the main categories.
Of course, Ed Lachman, cinematographer extraordinaire, is at the top of the list. He’s out-Madded “Mad Men” from its first season, drawing in elements of his own “Far from Heaven.”
Unlike “Far from Heaven,” Haynes’s last big film, this isn’t an ode to Douglas Sirk or anyone else. It’s based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith called “The Price of Salt.” Like the book, “Carol” takes place in 1952, as Eisenhower ascends as president and New York is still a small town. The next thing these filmmakers should tackle is a Dawn Powell story, like “The Locusts Have No King.” They could do it.
Blanchett is Carol, the wealthy, older beautiful woman divorcing her husband and fighting for custody of her 4 year old daughter. Rooney is Therese, the shopgirl Carol falls for. Yes, kids, this is a movie about lesbians during a time when this could not be discussed. And so there are no lawsuits or appearances on talk shows. Carol’s path is cluttered by silences and nuance as she tries to live her life and keep her daughter. The movie is made with precision and beauty.
We know that Cate Blanchett can do anything, and she does it here once again. This is “Jasmine” from “Blue Jasmine” minus the crazy. Rooney Mara– we mostly know her from the thriller (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”). Therese is her breakout role; if she wants to be Audrey Hepburn now, she can. Guys will see this movie just to see her.
Blanchett heads to Lead actress at the Oscars, Mara to supporting. Each have great chances of winning. Haynes’s direction is full of restraint until it’s time to pull the trigger, and when he does, it’s a cool shot. This is very fine filmmaking.
PS Great soundtrack. Eddie Fisher’s name is even invoked!
