Here’s the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, and a sterling cast.
Jackson told me the other night he hasn’t seen a bit of the movie yet. “Quentin’s just doing his thing,” he told me. “He’ll show us when he’s ready.”
Keith Richards goes digital in 48 hours. His first two solo albums, Talk is Cheap, and Main Offender hit Spotify and other digital platforms for the first time on Friday. These albums feature my favorite two Keith singles, “Make No Mistake,” featuring the stunning Sarah Dash of Labelle, and “Hate it When You Leave.”
PS Sarah Dash is having a birthday brunch show August 23rd at 54Below in New York. Tell her you heard it from me, and say I was pissed she didn’t invite me properly!
So, why the heck did HBO’s “Show Me a Hero” miss the Emmy cut off? Timing is everything! The Paul Haggis directed mini-series, written and produced by David Simon of “The Wire” fame, is the one reason to watch TV in August. The next awards it can be up for will be Golden Globes.
“Show Me a Hero” is like a great Sidney Lumet movie about politics and corruption in New York, with a heavy dose of Haggis, an expert at following different story threads to a conclusion.
Oscar Isaac, soon to play Han Solo’s kid in the new Star Wars and already a star from “Inside Llewyn Davis,” is Al Pacino-like riveting as real life Yonkers, New York mayor Nick Wasicsko who had to guide the city through a violent housing desegregation in the mid 1980s. Winona Ryder, who doesn’t work enough, makes a sensational comeback of sorts as a local councilwoman who stood up against the local Yonkers bigots who didn’t want blacks and low income families living in their neighborhoods.
The whole cast is top notch, with Bob Balaban, LaTanya Richardson, Alfred Molina, Jim Belushi, Catherine Keener, Peter Riegert, and Jon Bernthal among the standouts. The whole show is like a Who’s Who of the Best Actors Around as the tragic story of Wasicscko’s ride as the youngest mayor of a major city plays out.
Yonkers, if you don’t know, is a hidden big city directly north of New York’s City’s the Bronx in Westchester County and very much like that borough– except instead of the Yankees, it has a lot of inner city problems.
How hard was “Show Me a Hero” to make? When principal photography concluded, the show’s co-writer and executive producer, Simon’s long time partner, actually had a stroke. Simon joked, “He was back in time for post-production.”
Last night’s premiere brought out Marisa Tomei, Samuel L. Jackson, Joel Coen and Frances McDormand, and my old friend, designer Kai Milla (ex-Mrs. Stevie Wonder) who told me she’s bringing a new line of clothes to Fashion Week next month with a big show at the snazzy Baccarat Hotel.
And Oscar? Are you following this guy? His career is a straight trajectory up for the last 10 years. He’s got Star Wars and X Men coming up. I’m certain he will have his own Oscar before he turns 40. Nice guys finish first sometimes!
Uggie, the amazing Jack Russell terrier who stole the Oscar winning movie “The Artist,” has passed away at age 13. Well, he was put to sleep apparently according to a Facebook post. Uggie became an overnight sensation after starring in “The Artist” with Jean DuJardin and Berenice Bejo. He danced on stages all over the world, and attended the Academy Awards. The night before the Oscars he was feted at The Weinstein Company party at Soho House in Los Angeles, where he posed all night for pictures and signed autographs. I’ll never forget his trainer carrying him around on a pillow. The word was that Uggie had picked up a publicist and agent, wouldn’t do interviews, and had become very difficult. But really, he was a charmer. He even published a memoir in 2012.
from Facebook:
We regret to inform to all our friends, family and Uggie’s fans that our beloved boy has passed away. We were not planning on posting anything until we healed a little more but unfortunately somebody leaked it to TMZ and they will be announcing it. In short, Uggie had a cancerous tumor in the prostate and is now in a better place not feeling pain. Thank you for your support, I will not be reading any comments for a while as it is too painful at the moment.
Someone call the Karma Police! Dronemeister Thom Yorke of Radiohead fame is composing music for a Broadway play.
That’s right. Yorke is joining the Roundabout Theater production of Harold Pinter’s “Old Times” starring Clive Owen, Eve Best, and Kelly Reilly. Douglas Hodge is directing, and the show opens October 6th for a short run.
Yorke says in a press release: ““It’s been a pleasure working with Doug on my first stage production. I’ve enjoyed exploring through music the script’s themes of love and memory as well as Pinter’s rhythms, twists and turns.”
OK, sounds like fun. Here’s a little Radiohead for a Monday morning:
Broadway’s “Doctor Zhivago” didn’t make it this past spring; the stage production was beautiful but unwieldy.
Luckily, Lucy Simon’s wonderful songs live on in a just-released cast album. Below you can watch the 12 minute exclusive video of the making of the album. I think the songs stand on their own. They are really beautiful. My guess is, one day in the near future new producers will try again with “Doctor Zhivago” and these songs will already be well known to fans of the album.
Exclusive video
And here’s an earlier video of a song I really liked from the show called “Love Finds You”:
“The Man from UNCLE” is back and I’m ready for the sequel. Guy Ritchie has made such a fun, stylish origins story film about Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin that they could absolutely have played another installment at the Ziegfeld and everyone would have stayed.
And the audience included Ritchie’s kids with Madonna, son Rocco, and David Banda, the little boy they adopted from Malawi. I met the kids at the screening and they are very nice. They were quite excited for their dad.
Also in the audience: “12 Years a Slave” Oscar winning director Steve McQueen, “Crash” Oscar winning director Paul Haggis, Broadway stars Leanne Cope and Sara Esty from “An American in Paris,” Mick Jones from Foreigner with daughter Annabelle, and Maureen and Steve van Zandt. Later at the after party at the Bowery Hotel, we ran into MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell looking dapper after a day on the air.
At the premiere party, Armie Hammer — charming and affable, as always, a young Robert Redford from “The Way We Were” days– took pictures with Cope and her Broadway pals. They were, let’s say, agog. Hammer tried to dissuade them about his matinee idol status. “How about that Henry?” he said of his co-star who also plays Superman. “He’s carved out of marble!”
Will there be a sequel to “UNCLE,” I asked? Armie, bluntly said: “You never know. That’s what we thought about the Lone Ranger. And look what happened. It took me a long time to get over that.”
But back to “UNCLE”: Guy Ritchie is really the star of “The Man from UNCLE” even though he’s not in the movie. It’s just that as the director, Ritchie’s presence, personality and artistic stamp are all over the movie, and it’s a good thing. Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer are the actors, and they’re perfectly suave as Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin. Hugh Grant doesn’t have enough to do as Mr. Waverly, head of British Intelligence, but he might in a sequel– which I’d like to see. This movie is an origins story– it brings up to the first episode of the TV show. And it’s incredibly entertaining.
“The Man from UNCLE” is also beautifully shot, has a real sense of time (the 60s), place (Rome) and attitude (glib, willful, fun). Joanna Johnston’s costumes are sensational riffs on mod apparel, but in their own groovy-ness. Oliver Scholl’s production design is cool, cool, cool. And the props– including a mod one piece phone with the dial under the base– are dead on perfect.
The secret stars of “UNCLE” might turn out to be the ladies. Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki are absolutely essential, charming and sexy as respectively, a heroine and a villainess to counterpoint the guys. One or two movies from now you’re going to look back and say ‘Oh I know them.’ Swede Vikander with a swoony British sounding accent will be in “The Danish Girl” this fall. Debicki was the essential Jordan Baker in “The Great Gatsby” and she’s Lady McDuff in “MacBeth” also this fall starring Vikander’s boyfriend Michael Fassbender. Each of them is hot stuff.
PS As with Mission Impossible, Man from UNCLE is all about the music. The soundtrack is a lush combination of the original theme music and various similar takes including some uses of the scores from the original series. “The Man from UNCLE” theme was written by Jerry Goldsmith, who also wrote music for the show. But many other important composers contributed including Lalo Schifrin (Mission Impossible). All I know is, I want this CD ASAP.
EXCLUSIVE The Toronto Film Festival may be announcing this morning a screening of “Amazing Grace,” an unseen performance doc about Aretha Franklin filmed by Sydney Pollack in 1972 in Los Angeles. (UPDATE The screening was announced. Telluride will also show the film. )
I say “may” for many reasons: the film’s provenance is still up for some discussion. Franklin has not wanted it to be released, and has fought it at every level. She may still fight it, that part is unclear.
Alan Elliott, a lecturer at the Herb Alpert UCLA School of Music, told me a few days ago that he he owns the rights. There’s a long back story about how Pollack made the movie, and papers Franklin may or may not have signed 40 years ago, etc. But the main story now is that Elliot managed to get the audio and video synched up of this historic performance, and he’s planning on showing it in Toronto and at Telluride.
Thanks to Elliott, I’ve seen “Amazing Grace.” It runs about 87 minutes and is all music taken from Franklin’s huge bestselling album of the same name. All of the music is spiritual with the exception of an astounding rendition of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”
There’s also a little surprise: Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts sat in the very small audience at the church for one of the filming days. They aren’t seen talking to anyone, or vice versa, including Franklin. But they are very much on camera.
Reverend James Cleveland accompanies Franklin on piano, although Aretha herself plays quite a bit. She’s 30 years old, has already had innumerable hits, and is sensational. At one point, her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, gets up and speaks about her. She’s 30; he’s 57. It’s an incredible historic moment. She is at her greatest height artistically (although she’s pretty damn good right now).
For her own reasons, however, Franklin has blocked this film’s release over the years. Her attorney Arnold Reid got a temporary injunction against Elliot in 2011. In 2012, he told a Detroit TV station that Franklin would have to approve the film’s release. “(You) still can’t use somebody’s name and likeness for commercial purposes without compensating them,” Reid said. “They own it, but they can’t exploit it commercially without her permission.”
So what’s next? Keep refreshing. Franklin is traveling, doing dates in Oakland CA and Las Vegas, and can’t be reached yet.
Good grief! The record business hits an all time low this week as the top album– “The Descendants”– sold only 31,000 copies.
The second, third, and fourth spots on the Top album charts goes to reissues from Led Zeppelin. The 40 year old albums sold around 70,000 copies total.
Last week pretty much no one bought new music. Even Taylor Swift’s reliable “1989” album sold just 20,000 copies.
The number 50 album, the soundtrack to “50 Shades of Grey,” sold just 4,354 copies.
The music business is in free fall. Where are the great songs of summer, the big beach hits?
Who’s to blame? Radio would be my first choice. They’ve killed opportunities for new records, and limited their rotations to the same junk over and over. There’s also no variation.
Sirius is fine, but it’s expensive and skews a little older. Apple Music’s Beats 1 is the new hot thing to listen to on iPods and iPhones. But it’s not clear if music played there is translating to sales.
Spotify and other streaming services are how kids are getting their music. I guess kids don’t have record collections any more. What a shame.
This would be the moment for a big surprise release, something to really shake up the industry and the fans. But even the artists are scared– they know music isn’t selling. Even One Direction’s new single leveled off quickly.
The real test will be when Justin Bieber drops something — an album, a single– besides his pants, on August 28th. That will be his Stevie Wonder moment, when he actually puts up or shuts up with real music and not just bubblegum.
But I am surprised there isn’t more panic.
Does this sound Kosher? I’m told “Friends” star David Schwimmer is producing a TV pilot about ultra Orthodox Jews who live in the insular community of Fishkill, New York. He thinks it could be the “Big Love” of the Hasidic community.
The show will be called “Fishkill” I’m told, and Schwimmer’s Dark Harbor Productions has optioned it through their partner Tom Hodges. Lisa Davis, a writer from Providence, Rhode Island, wrote the script. The great actor-director Bob Balaban has signed to direct the pilot.
The main characters in “Fishkill” are named Moishe, Lev, and Bathsheba. I’m not making this up, and this isn’t a Mel Brooks skit. Lev is a diamond dealer in the city. Bathsheba supposedly meets a transgender person while shopping for wigs. There is going to be nudity and sex among the wigs, they say. I do hope there’s a suped-up Mitzvah mobile, and a hora here or there.
The word is, they’re looking for actors who speak Yiddish. Oy vey!
Hey, you never know what will work!