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Novelist Michael Chabon Wrote Almost All the Lyrics to Mark Ronson’s New Album

Roger Friedman
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Novelist Michael Chabon Wrote Almost All the Lyrics to Mark Ronson’s New Album

Are you a fan of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”? “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”? Telegraph Avenue”? Then you’re in luck. Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon has written almost all the lyrics to Mark Ronson’s new album album. “Uptown Special” comes out January 13th from RCA.  Ronson, son of Ann Dexter Jones and stepson of Mick Jones of Foreigner, is a popular DJ and producer of Amy Winehouse, among others. He calls Chabon his favorite living writer. There are a lot of great studio musicians on the album, as well as Stevie Wonder on Harmonica. Bruno Mars helped write a couple of the song, too– let’s hope they don’t sound like the Police. Using Chabon is the most interesting idea I’ve heard in a long time.  Can’t wait to hear these songs.

 

Uptown Special Track Listing:

1. Uptown’s First Finale

2. Summer Breaking

3. Feel Right

4. Uptown Funk

5. I Can’t Lose

6. Daffodils

7. Crack In The Pearl

8. In Case Of Fire

9. Leaving Los Feliz

10. Heavy And Rolling

11. Crack In The Pearl pt. II

Broadcast Critics Nominees Surprise: Exclude “Foxcatcher,” “American Sniper”

Roger Friedman
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Broadcast Critics Nominees Surprise: Exclude “Foxcatcher,” “American Sniper”

I vote in the BFCA for the Critics Choice Awards. So I’m a little surprised that “Foxcatcher” and “American Sniper” were each excluded in the balloting. “Gone Girl” took one of their spots certainly. I guess “Nightcrawler” took the other.  It’s also a blow to Steve Carell, who deserves to be in there. Meanwhile, the Jennifer Aniston campaign is charging along. Good for her.

 

 

NOMINATIONS FOR THE 20th ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS

BEST PICTURE
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Mackenzie Foy – Interstellar
Jaeden Lieberher – St. Vincent
Tony Revolori – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie
Noah Wiseman – The Babadook

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Selma

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman
Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman – Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
Whiplash – Damien Chazelle

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten
Unbroken – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson
Wild – Nick Hornby

BEST CINEMATOGRAPY
Birdman – Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Robert Yeoman
Interstellar – Hoyte Van Hoytema
Mr. Turner – Dick Pope
Unbroken – Roger Deakins

BEST ART DIRECTION
Birdman – Kevin Thompson/Production Designer, George DeTitta Jr./Set Decorator
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Inherent Vice – David Crank/Production Designer, Amy Wells/Set Decorator
Interstellar – Nathan Crowley/Production Designer, Gary Fettis/Set Decorator
Into the Woods – Dennis Gassner/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Snowpiercer – Ondrej Nekvasil/Production Designer, Beatrice Brentnerova/Set Decorator

BEST EDITING
Birdman – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
Boyhood – Sandra Adair
Gone Girl – Kirk Baxter
Interstellar – Lee Smith
Whiplash – Tom Cross

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B. Sheppard
Mr. Turner – Jacqueline Durran

BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Into the Woods
Maleficent

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

BEST ACTION MOVIE
American Sniper
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Tom Cruise – Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt – Fury
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley – Divergent

BEST COMEDY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
St. Vincent
Top Five
22 Jump Street

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jon Favreau – Chef
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Chris Rock – Top Five
Channing Tatum – 22 Jump Street

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Rose Byrne – Neighbors
Rosario Dawson – Top Five
Melissa McCarthy – St. Vincent
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Kristen Wiig – The Skeleton Twins

BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Babadook
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
Wild Tales

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Citizenfour
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters

BEST SONG
Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey – Big Eyes
Everything Is Awesome – Jo Li and the Lonely Island – The Lego Movie
Glory – Common/John Legend – Selma
Lost Stars – Keira Knightley – Begin Again
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

D’Angelo Releases His First Album in 14 Years! Best Sly Stone Album Prince Never Made

Roger Friedman
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D’Angelo Releases His First Album in 14 Years! Best Sly Stone Album Prince Never Made

“Black Messiah” is the first new album from D’Angelo since “Voodoo” in the year 2000. It was released to Spotify and iTunes at midnight, and it’s on the Red Bull Academy website. Is he even on a label anymore? (Yes, RCA.) D’Angelo, whose real name is Michael Eugene Archer, has made the best album Prince never made via Sly Stone. The first single or any single is “Really Love” and it’s great. What a nice Chanukah present! We may see d’Angelo on Jimmy Fallon this week, as Questlove seems to be very involved with the album.

No clips yet, Hold on til the morning…

from the press release, thanks to RCA:

“‘Black Messiah’ is a hell of a name for an album. It can be easily misunderstood. Many will think it’s about religion. Some will jump to the conclusion that I’m calling myself a Black Messiah. For me the title is about all of us. It’s about the world. It’s about an idea we can all aspire to. We should all aspire to be a Black Messiah. It’s about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and everyplace where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It’s not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them. Not every song on this album is politically charged (though many are) but calling this album Black Messiah creates a landscape where these songs can live to the fullest. Black Messiah is not one man. It’s a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.”

Eric Garner’s Killer Cop Daniel Pantaleo: NYPD Settled Cases with 2 Others, Another Is Pending

Roger Friedman
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Eric Garner’s Killer Cop Daniel Pantaleo: NYPD Settled Cases with 2 Others, Another Is Pending

This isn’t a scoop, per se. It’s been written about before, but not much. Indeed, the New York Times has never mentioned the names Darren Collins or Tommy Rice at all since NYPD office Daniel Pantaleo killed unarmed father of six, Eric Garner, in a chokehold last July. What happened to the Times? They are not the paper of record anymore.

Pantaleo killed Garner in June. But he’s been in hot water before regarding bad arrests and black victims. In 2012, he wrongly arrested Collins and Rice. He and several other officers stopped their car on Staten Island for no reason. Then they strip searched Collins and Rice, humiliated them by playing with their genitalia.

Collins and Rice’s lawyer told the Staten Island Advance that Pantaleo lied about seeing crack and heroin in plain view on the back seat. The truth was their driver had drugs in his pocket, it was later discovered. He took a plea deal. The cases against Collins and Rice were dropped. They sued the NYPD and won $15,000 apiece.

According to the lawsuit Pantaleo and another cop “pulled down the plaintiffs’ pants and underwear, and touched and searched their genital areas, or stood by while this was done in their presence.” At the 120th precinct,  Pantaleo participated in another strip-search, and forced Collins and Rice “to remove all of their clothing, squat, cough and lift their genitals.”

Nice huh?

Pantaleo still faces a lawsuit from Rylawn Walker, whom he arrested even though Walker contends he was doing nothing suspicious. He was caught up in a drug bust nearby and claims Pantaleo lied about him having drugs. The case against Walker was dropped.

So this is Daniel Pantaleo, who a grand jury couldn’t get a verdict against and prosecutors made sure went free. The Times has never not once reported these cases, despite the fact that the city is now teeming with protests and marches.

 

“Annie” Remake is Going to Bomb, But Not Because of Sony Hack or Racist Emails

Roger Friedman
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“Annie” Remake is Going to Bomb, But Not Because of Sony Hack or Racist Emails

Just a little FYI: “Annie” is going to bomb, and it won’ t be because of the Sony hacking or racist emails. I just saw an item somewhere that said Sony’s Amy Pascal is going to meet with Al Sharpton so that blacks won’t boycott “Annie.” Huh? Listen, “Annie” has a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews are scorching. It’s supposed to be god-awful. If people stay away, it’s because they don’t want to sit through it.

Why is it so bad? They gave a musical to a writer-director who’s never made a musical and has no background in it. Will Gluck directed “Easy A,” a very good movie. Aline Brosh McKenna wrote “The Devil Wears Prada.” Neither of these people is Rob Marshall or Bill Condon. Hello?

Want to see a great movie version of “Annie”? Rob Marshall directed one for TV in 1999, written by Irene Mecchi (“The Lion King”). Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Audra McDonald and Alan Cumming starred in it. That version was totally smart and enjoyable, and won a boatload of awards. It was far better than the original movie directed by John Huston. Check it out. Here.

“Selma” Director Gets Standing Ovation BEFORE Premiere Screening, And Another After

Roger Friedman
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“Selma” Director Gets Standing Ovation BEFORE Premiere Screening, And Another After

Ava Duvernay got a big shock Sunday night at the Ziegfeld before her premiere screening of “Selma.” In front of a really sold out audience, she received a standing ovation BEFORE the screening, just when her name was announced. Among the A list crowd on its feet: Aretha Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Gayle King, India Arie, Audra McDonald, Bebe Winans, Ruben Santiago Hudson, as well as the “Selma” cast including Tim Roth, Tom Wilkinson, and Alessandro Nivola with “Newsroom” star and wife Emily Mortimer.

It didn’t hurt that also on his feet was Martin Luther King III, son of the famed civil rights leader, with his daughter. He’s a big fan of the film about his father.

After Paramount chief Brad Grey made an unusual opening speech about the movie, the crowd went wild for Duvernay and star David Oyelowo. The word had already spread: this may be the most important film of the year despite being snubbed by the idiots at the National Board of Review. Already on the AFI list of 10 best movies of 2014, “Selma” feels like a winner. Oyelowo most certainly will be nominated and may indeed win the Oscar for Best Actor.

Paramount threw a swanky party at the New York Public Library after the screening where no less an eminence than Harvey Weinstein was spotted congratulating everyone.

“Selma” is notable for more than a few things: introducing Martin and Coretta King as a glamorous young couple in Oslo, when Martin is accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he’s just 35 years old; shocking the movie audience right away into paying attention with the deaths of the four little girls in Birmingham, Alabama; and letting King via Oyelowo deliver his speeches with fiery oratory that actually shows who he was and why he was so revered.

Get ready because “Selma” is going to be BIG when it opens on Christmas Day. Oyelowo gives a masterful performance. There are plenty of terrific supporting players too including Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Wilkinson as LBJ, Roth as the evil George Wallace, plus Lorraine Toussaint, Colman Domingo, Tessa Thompson, Wendell Pierce, E. Roger Mtichell, Common and Niecy Nash.

“Gotti” Movie Story Re-surfaces in NY Times, And Paper Has No Idea What’s Going On

Roger Friedman
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“Gotti” Movie Story Re-surfaces in NY Times, And Paper Has No Idea What’s Going On

Oh, the New York Times. What a mess! Briefly: they reported today that our old friend, Sal Carpanzano, is in trouble with the law. He’s been arrested on three separate fraud charges, one of them involving the “Gotti” movie that was never made and will never be made. Somehow, the NY Times reporter became convinced that “Gotti” producer Marc Fiore and his partner Fay Devlin are the injured parties. I will write more later, but for the time being you can read the history of the “Gotti” movie as reported exclusively here. Marc Fiore is an ex con who was part of a boiler room operation. He was written about in a book about the whole thing. I told you this whole story back in 2011-12. But it’s back. And there’s more tomorrow…

http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/09/16/exclusive-the-real-story-of-why-the-john-travolta-gotti-film-fell-apart

 

http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/10/17/gotti-movie-exec-producer-ive-never-encountered-anything-so-difficult-in-my-life

“Exodus” Causes Exodus from Theatres: Hits 27% on Critics List, Falls Short at Box Office

Roger Friedman
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“Exodus” Causes Exodus from Theatres: Hits 27% on Critics List, Falls Short at Box Office

Ridley Scott’s “Exodus” didn’t bring as many fans into theatres as producers might have hoped. You could say it caused an Exodus! Fox reported $24.5 million today for the first weekend, with a huge drop from Saturday to Sunday. When the real numbers come in late tomorrow, expect “Exodus” to be even a little lower. On RottenTomatoes, the film is at an astonishingly 27%. And that’s instructive since review embargoes kept it at 44% for a while. But the bottom dropped out, and the audience smelled a stinker even if it was late.

The failure of “Exodus”– and it’s a bust, just wait til the drop off next week– bodes poorly for the end of the year. Aside from the final “Hobbit” there is no destination movie for Christmas-New Year’s. It’s really dismal. All of the Oscar movies are pretty much out, except for “American Sniper” and “Unbroken.” We’ll see how they do. The latter should bring out audiences. With “Sniper,” I wish they had a November release date. But it should click in January.

What I would see on Christmas day: Whiplash. St. Vincent. Paddington. Rent “Chef.”

Sony Hack, Rudin, Etc: Angelina Jolie Has Nothing to Be Ashamed of– “Unbroken” is Excellent

Roger Friedman
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Sony Hack, Rudin, Etc: Angelina Jolie Has Nothing to Be Ashamed of– “Unbroken” is Excellent

I hate to say this, but if Angelina Jolie were a) a man or b) unknown, “Unbroken” would be considered a masterpiece. Jolie is a lightning rod, as Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal’s leaked emails show all too well. Rudin, who hates everyone, considers her a “spoiled brat” and doesn’t want her commandeering David Fincher for her “Cleopatra” remake. I agree; there’s no reason for a “Cleopatra” remake. But I disagree about Jolie.

“Unbroken” was recently named to the AFI list of top 10 movies of the year. It’s a deserved spot. That Jolie was able to tell the story of Louie Zamperini at all seems to really upset a lot of people. That she made a real epic film on a big canvas, one that fully conveys Zamperini’s rise to Olympics fame and then his two years of torture as a World War II prisoner of the Japanese– wow, that is even worse. How dare she?

“Unbroken” isn’t perfect. It’s long but that’s no different than anything else. Every movie could use 20 minutes excised. It may seem a little conventional, also, as it is a linear story. The early parts of the screenplay are frustrating as they cut back and forth in time. Four screenwriters were involved including Joel and Ethan Coen. But the story is unwieldy, and that’s just something we have to deal with until Zamperini and his two comrades are in their lifeboat. After that it’s smooth– er, well, choppy– sailing.

Zamperini survived being shot down over the Pacific and living in a lifeboat for 47 days. This was not fiction, like Life of Pi. There were no imaginary animals to play with. This was real. And 47 grueling days, and the death of one buddy, he and the other survivor were ‘rescued’ by the Japanese. They were thrown in prison and stayed in a Japanese internment camp for two years. Zamperini was singled for for torture due to his status as an Olympic hero. All of this happened.

The truth is, if Spielberg or Eastwood made the movie (and they have, in different forms) the Oscar prognosticators would be running around screaming  “brilliant” and putting on awards parades. But it’s Angelina Jolie, so either she made this film by luck, or someone else did it and she’s “lip synching.” Bull shit.

Just wait: Jolie makes movie stars out of Jack O’Connell, Finn Wittrock, and Domhnall Gleason.  If Universal puts some muscle into the marketing, “Unbroken” should turn into an audience favorite. It’s patriotic and heroic, and a big old fashioned entertainment.

 

Oscar Best Actor Race: Bradley Cooper May Have Edge After Broadway Triumph

Roger Friedman
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Oscar Best Actor Race: Bradley Cooper May Have Edge After Broadway Triumph

The Best Actor race is probably the one most talked about some 10 weeks before the Oscars. Everyone has a theory about what’s going to happen, and who’s making final cut of Five.

I do think right off the bat you’ve got Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne playing respective British math geniuses in “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything.” They are in, with Cumberbatch slightly leading Redmayne.

Then what? David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King in “Selma” seems like a sure thing. But then so does Michael Keaton in “Birdman” and Steve Carell in “Foxcatcher.” All three could make it.

For a while, there was solid talk of Oscar Isaac in “A Most Violent Year.” Oscar is thisclose to having an Academy Awards career. But I don’t think it’s with this picture. I was also very high on Bill Murray in “St. Vincent.” The movie has done very very well, and Murray is superb. But the momentum has not materialized.

One actor poses a threat to one of those three — Oyelowo, Keaton and Carell. It’s Bradley Cooper, who opened to raves last Sunday night on Broadway in “The Elephant Man.” His performance as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in “American Sniper” is the real thing. I saw that  movie on Thanksgiving weekend– three weeks ago– and Cooper has not gone out of my head since that screening.

Seeing him on Broadway with the sensational Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson reaffirmed my opinion. Yes, you say that Cooper has two Oscar nominations thanks to director David O. Russell. And when he was on Broadway several years ago with Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd he was the rainmaker in “Three Days of Rain.”

A lot of people may not realize this but Bradley Cooper did study at the Actors Studio. He’s serious about his craft. As John Merrick, the Elephant Man, he twists his body and face, all the while maintaining a convincing British accent and a witty sense of humor. He has a long scene with Nivola in Act 2 that crystallizes the whole play. You walk out of the Booth Theatre and it’s almost impossible to shake John Merrick off.

Same thing for Cooper’s Chris Kyle. Kyle was basically a legit hit man for the Navy, a sniper who doesn’t just pick off obvious bad guys. Clint Eastwood’s film is deceptive. You want to dismiss it, and Kyle as a redneck who loved guns. But nothing is that simple. “American Sniper” is not a rah-rah red state tribute to guns and violence.

Eastwood peels back Kyle’s life layer by layer. On screen Kyle develops with a personal arc into a three dimensional character. Cooper, beefed up, does his best work since “Limitless.” (I’m not counting the Russell movies.) Since Kyle was a real person whom just about no one in film criticism would know or relate to, Cooper pulls off a coup. He really makes us care about this guy. And that’s the task at hand.

So far “American Sniper” — which opens Christmas Day– has had a funny ride in awards season. The National Board of Review went overboard for it. Then the Golden Globes snubbed it entirely. WTH? What does this mean? In the end, nothing. Those two groups are all about the subjective, and who owes whom what.

Don’t forget — “Sniper” is on the AFI List of Best Films of 2014. That’s the only list you should care about. I agree. It’s one of the best films of the year. Luke Grimes, who was kind of a weasel on TV in “Brothers & Sisters,” makes a huge impression supporting Cooper here. But Bradley Cooper really comes into his own this winter with “Sniper” and “Elephant Man.” This can’t be ignored. I think he’s a surprise nominee.

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