Jerry Garcia biopic brewing in Hollywood
July 23, 2010
Captain Trips is going Hollywood as the story of Jerry Garcia’s early years appears headed for the big screen.
Expected to be titled “Dark Star,” the movie “will be psychedelic in the best sense,” one writer says.
The independent film’s director is Amir Bar-Lev, who made the excellent 2007 documentary “My Kids Could Paint That” as well as 2010′s “Tillman.” While a stream of documentaries have covered Garcia and the Grateful Dead over the years, this is a feature film.
The source material is Robert Greenfield’s book “Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia”
(Update 8/4: Unlikely seems an understatement. Grateful Dead Productions and Jerry Garcia Family LLC made a point of announcing that the “supposed upcoming” biopic won’t be allowed to use recordings by the Grateful Dead or from Jerry Garcia’s solo work. Access to Garcia family members will be denied as well, the Dead organizations said.) /update
Greenfield compared the project with the acclaimed Beatles movie “Backbeat,” which told the story of the Fab Four (or Five) before they became famous. “(Garcia) did things on electric guitar that weren’t done before not because he had taken LSD but because of all the influences he absorbed throughout his life.”
The Garcia project’s screenwriter is Topper Lilien, whose previous movies “Where the Money Is” and “Dungeons & Dragons” were released in 2000. “Topper Lilien’s daring script does justice to Garcia and steadfastly resists cliche,” Bar-Lev told Variety, which broke the story.
Producing are Eric Eisner (“Hamlet 2″) and the indie team of Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (“Little Miss Sunshine”).
Hollywood trades often float early-in-development projects in exchange for exclusivity. The Garcia biopic has no star or distributor, apparently, so there’s no guarantee it’ll come out soon — or at all.
The news comes days after Amy Adams (“Enchanted”) was announced as the star of a Janis Joplin biopic called “Get It While You Can.” “City of God’s” Fernando Meirelles directs and “Twilight’s” Wyck Godfrey produces.
“Nowhere Boy,” a U.K. import about John Lennon’s childhood, is making the festival circuit before its October release in the States.
More Grateful Dead content:
- Grateful Dead’s history a Society affair
- Furthur adventures of the Grateful Dead family
- Furthur live on satellite radio; concert cancelled
Combination of the 2: Adams as Joplin
July 19, 2010
America’s sweetheart Amy Adams as hard-living, leather-voiced singer Janis Joplin? Yes, that was an enormous collective WTF from Baby Boomers and the Generation X’ers who love them.
“Twilight” producer Wyck Godfrey let slip the left-fielder that Adams (“Enchanted,” “Junebug”) is the latest actress aiming to play Joplin in a biopic. “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles is aboard “Get It While You Can” as well, Godfrey says.
Adams doesn’t look her years — 35 of them — and Joplin always looked a lot older than hers. But at best Adams will go before the cameras being eight years older than Joplin when the singer died of shooting dope in a dicey Hollywood hotel.
What could possibly prepare the former Mormon, ballerina, Disney princess and Gap greeter for inhabiting the drug-and-booze-ravaged body of Joplin? Adams’ brief stint at Hooters and her role in “Psycho Beach Party” offer some faint hope.
Then there’s the beauty thing. Adams has plenty. Joplin … had a great voice. But, as many have pointed out, who could have imagined Charlize Theron as the ugliest woman in Florida in “Monster.” And no doubt Adams can sing and work a stage.
Other contemporary actresses linked to Joplin roles over the years include Pink (a major fan), Zooey Deschanel, Brittany Murphy, Scarlett Johansson and Renée Zellweger. Lindsay Lohan, Nikka Costa and Brittney Spears also had some flirtations with Joplin projects.
Bette Midler, of course, did what is to this point the best Joplin on film, playing the thinly disguised singer in “The Rose.” Midler won the Oscar for her performance, highlighted by a blazing version of “Stay With Me Baby.”
Penelope Spheeris’ apparently abandoned “Gospel According to Janis” originally had Pink in the lead role, but she reportedly walked out on the project, citing a “circus” atmosphere in casting. Deschanel then came aboard, taking months of voice lessons aimed at imitating Joplin, but the project dragged on for years. IMDB lists that production’s status as “unknown.”
Zellweger was attached to a Paramount project that also failed to surface at the boxoffice.
The Wall falls: Gilmour, Waters reunite
July 17, 2010
In what’s being called a temporary reunion, ex-Pink Floyd leaders David Gilmour and Roger Waters agreed to swap appearances at each other’s shows.
The sudden detente led to speculation that Pink Floyd might reunite at some point, however unlikely that might be.
Waters’ turn to perform came July 10, when he joined Gilmour at a charity event in Oxford, England.
Backed by a band, the duo sang “Wish You Were Here,” “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)” for an audience of about 200.
The oft-battling bandmates also broke out “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” the Phil Spector-penned song that they reportedly played — with some irony — at Pink Floyd soundchecks.
“I think it was David himself, came up with this ‘Wouldn’t it be funny’, idea,” Rogers wrote on his Facebook page. “What if he were to sing the old Teddy Bears song ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ with me, what with us having been so famously at each other’s throats for years and years.”
Rogers says he was terrified of singing the song in two-part harmony. Gilmour apparently talked him into it by vowing to do a walk-on at one of Rogers’ upcoming “The Wall” concerts.
“Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather,” Rogers continued. “How fucking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn’t, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear.”
Rogers admitted their performance of song was “fucking great” after all — adding cryptically: “End of story. Or possibly beginning.”
Any hopes for a Pink Floyd reunion would be muted by the loss of keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in January 2009. Previously, the psychedelic pioneers re-formed for charity, at 2005′s Live 8.
The July benefit, at a country estate, raised something like 350,000 pounds for the Hoping Foundation, which supports Palestinian children and youth in refugee camps.
More Pink Floyd content:
Pink Floyd walls off its concept albums
“Atom Heart Mother” review
‘Tommy’ back on video: It’s a Blu-ray
July 4, 2010
Here we have high-definition high concept: The visual freak show “Tommy” on Blu-ray.
Sony says the version of Ken Russell’s "Tommy" on Blu-ray comes “newly restored and remastered” for its Sept. 7 release.
The original 5.0 “quintaphonic” soundtrack returns from previous DVD versions, this time rendered in lossless audio. The regular Dolby 5.1 mix also has been remastered.
Lovers of the “Tommy” album looking for an amazing journey in sonics had best return to their SACD discs, however, as this movie’s soundtrack doesn’t feature the original 1968 recording. Instead, mainstream actors and a handful of rock stars help the Who perform Pete Townshend’s rock opera. (It’s a good 20 minutes into the film before we hear the ‘orrible Who do their thing.)
“Tommy,” of course, stars the Who’s Roger Daltrey in the eponymous role. Director Russell brought in movie stars Ann-Margret, Jack Nicholson and Oliver Reed in a bid to flesh out the rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy.
Townshend made numerous changes and additions to his sketchy narrative from 1969, notably moving its catalytic events from WWI to WWII. All of the Who’s original music was rerecorded for the film, a downgrade in every case.
The actors all sang their parts — terrific in the case of raspy Tina Turner; borderline tragic when Reed warbles his villainous nasty bits.
Actors from the rock world included Keith Moon (Uncle Ernie), Tina Turner (the Acid Queen), Elton John (the Pinball Wizard), and Eric Clapton and Arthur Brown (psychedelic priests).
Surreal/psychedelic highlights include the “Pinball Wizard” number with Elton John atop giant boots; the Marlyn Monroe worship scene with Clapton and Brown (“Eyesight to the Blind”), and the “I’m Free” sequence in which Tommy awakens from his addled state.
Here’s hoping for the best, but quintaphonic sonic probably won’t blow many minds these days, as its basic set-up — three speakers up front, two in the rear — has become common in homes, much less theaters. But back in 1975, “Tommy’s” quintaphonic dazzled preview audiences, who were presold thanks to the (short-lived) quadraphonic home audio format.
Four-channel audio (at the least) dated back to CinemaScope, but the stereo matrix technology used for quintaphonic — with its discrete horizontal and diagonal separation — proved groundbreaking. Quint was the forerunner of Dolby Stereo and the dueling cinema audio systems of the 1980s, such as DTS and SDDS.
The Blu-ray extras include a cloud-based trivia track and a trailer, perhaps this one:
