Runboard.com
Слава Україні!
Community logo


runboard.com       join up (learn about it) | Sign in (lost password?)

 
Roccabella Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Registered user

Registered: 12-2006
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 573
Karma: 15 (+26/-11)
Reply | Quote
Zak's dad in L.A.


A little help from her friends
Across The Universe; Paul And Ringo Approve Taymor's Beatles Movie
Chris Knight, National Post
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007

Every filmmaker worries about pleasing the critics. The two most worrisome and influential for Julie Taymor and her Beatles musical Across the Universe weren't Ebert & Roeper, however, but Sir Paul and Ringo.

"I was sitting right next to Paul McCartney," says Taymor, remembering an early screening, "and so scared and nervous, and he really liked the movie and under his breath he started even singing one of the songs. I could feel him moving to All My Loving."

Ringo Starr took in the film in Los Angeles at a screening attended by Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, who play the lead characters of Lucy and Jude in the film. "We spent the whole time watching him watching the film," says Sturgess, "and we're like, 'Yes! He's tapping his foot!' "
Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly
Font:

    * *
    * *
    * *
    * *

Sturgess, a 26-year-old from London, got to meet Starr after the screening and says: "The biggest compliment of all was he didn't realize that I wasn't from Liverpool. If Ringo Starr bought it, that was good enough for me."

Across the Universe had a gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday and opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver on Friday, with wider release to follow. The movie uses Beatles songs to tell of a group of young people in the '60s: Jude, who travels from Liverpool to America to find his father; Lucy, with whom he falls in love; and Max (Joe Anderson), Lucy's carefree brother, who gets drafted and sent to Vietnam.

Minor characters such as Prudence, Sadie and JoJo allow for more lyrics and songs to be used; in all, 33 of the group's numbers saturate the picture, and the two-hour-and-13-minute movie has only about a half hour of actual dialogue.

Sturgess is blunt about his initial impressions. "I was very nervous about it," he says. "I didn't think it was a very good idea, especially coming from England; we're very snobby about that stuff, we're very protective of the Beatles, and the idea of these high-school American kids singing Beatles songs was, 'This could be disastrous,' which I think was always the appeal for Julie.

"She gets a complete buzz out of taking the most ridiculous idea" -- he catches himself -- "or the most challenging idea and seeing what she can do with it. And if she can make an amazing piece of work out of a Disney cartoon about a fluffy lion then I can't imagine what she could do with the works of the Beatles."

Taymor won two Tonys -- direction and costume design -- for her Broadway adaption of Disney's The Lion King. Both those talents are on display in Across the Universe. "You'd be walking around one day and suddenly you'd see this giant puppet being built in the next studio," Sturgess recalls.

For Taymor, part of the appeal of Across the Universe was its epic nature. "You have a love story but you also have a story of ambition," she says. "You can't just do the hippies and the psychedelics without doing the race riots and the darkness."

The original idea, from screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, was to use 15 songs, but the concept kept growing. "The story was created by listening to 200 songs and choosing songs that could lend themselves to this basic story," says Taymor, "and then the story was created around the songs. It was a round robin that way, one thing inspiring another."

Sturgess isn't well-known to American audiences -- yet. In addition to his powerful singing voice in Across the Universe, he stars in upcoming films The Other Boleyn Girl with Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana; and 21 with Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne. He also has a role in Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd and Sean Penn.

"I had a great time because I had the privilege of discovering him," says Taymor proudly. The film held open casting sessions in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool and the United States, but when she saw Sturgess, "I knew right away. There was no doubt. He had the edge. He had the voice. There's no disconnect between his speaking voice and when he starts to sing, and he's a consummate musician."

She says Sturgess got an early taste of fame at a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which has yet to be broadcast. "It was like being at an early Beatles concert," she says. "The swooning ladies!" - Across the Universe opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver tomorrow, with wider release to follow.

[email protected]


© National Post 2007

---
Roccabella
9/13/2007, 10:13 pm Link to this post Send Email to Roccabella   Send PM to Roccabella Yahoo Blog
 
L L Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Registered user

Registered: 07-2003
Posts: 4081
Karma: 114 (+117/-3)
Reply | Quote
Re: Zak's dad in L.A.


quote:

Ringo Starr took in the film in Los Angeles at a screening attended by Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, who play the lead characters of Lucy and Jude in the film. "We spent the whole time watching him watching the film," says Sturgess,



LOVELY!!!!

Thanks for posting the story.
9/15/2007, 2:01 pm Link to this post Send Email to L L   Send PM to L L
 
Ratmannnn Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Registered user

Registered: 06-2004
Posts: 11243
Karma: 29 (+209/-180)
Reply | Quote
Re: Zak's dad in L.A.


 LL, who else do you know who would watch a Fab all through the movie?

---

9/15/2007, 5:21 pm Link to this post Send Email to Ratmannnn   Send PM to Ratmannnn
 
Roccabella Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

Registered user

Registered: 12-2006
Location: Boulder, CO
Posts: 573
Karma: 15 (+26/-11)
Reply | Quote
Re: Zak's dad in L.A.


I would, but if he saw me looking at him, I'd freak inside, and smile on the outside...I think, but who knows. When Barbara stood right next to me & my lil' one (who was dancin,) I froze....then tried to get Kate to look at Barb, but she was too busy jammin......Barb was watching Kate.....dang, why does'nt my child listen to me. Anyway, Barb was off to be w/her man backstage......it was over that quick. This was at the El Rey fundraiser in L.A. The woman who keeps her Richie in good health, and inspired........blah, blah, blah. Love that drummer.

---
Roccabella
9/16/2007, 4:02 pm Link to this post Send Email to Roccabella   Send PM to Roccabella Yahoo Blog
 


Add a reply





You are not logged in (login)