TRAILER: Nowhere Boy...

So, it's no shock to anyone who has a television, that this country, and world for that matter, is in some sort of Beatles-palooza. Ranging from full on promotion whoring (if I see ONE MORE "All You Need Is Love" or "Come Together" commercial, someone will die. And I'm a man of my word), to video games, to full on films/remakes, people seem to love this band more and more as they age, and not in any sort of cute or interesting way. It's all name recognition. However, this film looks to do a bit more than just whore the bands story out.

Nowhere Boy is a new film, that has been playing around the British film festival circuit, and is a biopic that follows the early years of John Lennon. Yesterday, we saw a couple of trailers, yet I must say, this one looks to be about as interesting as those underwhelming pieces.

While I don't think the film itself looks all that interesting (just a basic teen coming of age tale blah blah blah), the subject matter is so inherently interesting, that one can't help but look at this with a bit of interest. The trailer is different too, in that there is no Lennon or Beatles music played over it, which is shockingly fresh in these days where "Come Together" is played over everything, even over loud speakers as the guy down the road walks to pick up his hooker.

Oh, disclaimer, I'm a monstrous Beatles fan. Best. Band. Ever. So all of this hate isn't from some sort of outside space. It's from a guy who wants to see his favorite band not shelled out by companies for gross profit. Hoping off my high horse now.

"Nowhere Boy" stars stars Aaron Johnson (Lennon), Thomas Sangster (Paul McCartney), Kristen Scott Thomas (Lennon's surrogate mother, his Aunt Mimi) David Morrissey, Anne-Marie Duff and it was written by Matt Greenhalgh, the screenwriter who penned the Ian Curtis/Joy Division biopic "Control."

I do like the look of this film, but really, some of the stuff in here, is just so darn paint by numbers, that it makes me cringe at the sight. I'm still insanely interested in the film, just as a huge Lennon fan, but as a cinema fan, it's nothing that I think will shake up any sort of awards scene, if it even gets that kind of push. However, all of my fears could possibly be for naught, as TimeOutLondon recently gave the film four out of five stars, calling it a "pleasing, invigorating success that sidesteps the music and the future to explore a moving and instructive story about the making of a young man." Who knows.



Nowhere Boy is directed by English visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, marking her feature directorial debut after directing the short film Love You More. The screenplay was written by Matt Greenhalgh, who also wrote the Joy Division biopic Control, and is based on the memoirs of John Lennon written by Julia Baird. This will premiere tomorrow night at the London Film Festival and open in the UK later this year. The Weinstein Company is distributing Nowhere Boy in the US, but hasn't set a release date yet.

Go see something good!

NEWS: Brian Epstein Biopic In Works...

For many of you, that headline may be caught with bouts of "huh?" and "who?".

Epstein, best known as being tagged as "The Fifth Beatle" by Paul McCartney, famously discovered the aforementioned Beatles, and eventually got them signed to Parolphone. He also signed their likeness and merchandising rights in crappy deals that eventually lost the band millions of dollars. His death in 1967 of a drug overdose also played into the band's 1969 break up.

Well, it appears as though a film based on his life is set to get put into motion. Variety is reporting that Youth In Revolt producer David Permut has acquired a script entitled "A Life In The Day", penned by Tony Gittelson.

So while this as a project sounds bland and uninteresting, The Playlist points out a very interesting point as to what is going on currently in the media with the recent Beatlepalooza:

This is just one facet of the re-emerging Beatlemania in the entertainment industry. It has all kicked off with the impending release of The Beatles: Rock Band, out September 9th. Apparently everyone is expecting this to kick off to spark major public re-interest in the Beatles as it has also prompted their former label, EMI, to finally release digitally remastered mono and stereo box sets of 11 Beatles albums which are sold out at retailers, including Amazon, well in advance of their September 9 release date (it's all about the 9.9.9 campaign, a veritable blanket Beatles marketing d-day campaign).

The movie industry is having its own Beatlemania renaissance, with Robert Zemeckis and Disney trying to get the rights to create a 3D version of the infamously terrible "Yellow Submarine" movie and the Weinstein Company releasing John Lennon biopic "Nowhere Boy," which will debut in London this fall.

So nothing much about this project has been released, but it does not sound very interesting. Sure, his life may have been quite problematic, but as with most biopics, there really isn't anything to deep to mine here. At least in my humble opinion. What about YOU?

Go see something good!

NEWS: Yellow Submarine To Get Remade?

It looks like Robert Zimeckis will continue his run of motion capture films, and add the Beatles Yellow Submarine to the likes of Beowulf and the upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Currently he and Disney are in negotiations to gain the rights to remake the film, one that I hold as being possibly in the list of 10 BEST animated films of all time. At least the most enjoyable.

Variety has the scoop:

The studio has been quietly brokering a complicated rights deal that would give Zemeckis access to 16 original Beatles songs for a movie he will direct in the performance-capture 3-D digital production format he employed for “A Christmas Carol.” Disney opens that film November 6, with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge as well as the three ghosts who haunt him in the Charles Dickens tale.

The hope is to have "Yellow Submarine" ready to premiere around the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begins July 27 in London.

Disney would not comment on the negotiations or the project. Zemeckis’s ImageMovers would produce.

There are a few things that come out of this news story, the biggest of which is the sudden resurgance of interest in the Beatles. There is the much hyped Beatles Rock Band which is due out next month, and along with that, films like Across The Universe have brought this legendary band (easily top five for yours truly) back into the mainstreams mind.

Also, and while it comes as no surprise, Zimeckis will be doing this in motion capture 3D, and while at first glance that sounds fine, I personally think that the entire feel of the original will be lost, and while it WILL be a remake, I love the style of the original, that it's going to be hard to lose that.

Finally, the song list. The deal DID include 16 songs, which include the title track, along with “All Together Now,” “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” “All You Need Is Love,” “When I’m 64,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.” I love those tracks, and minus "Rich Man", this may be THE only reason I would give this film a fighting chance, at least in this state in the project. I'm sure when I actually see something from it, my tune will be completely changed.

For those who don't know, the original took place in Pepperland, an undersea paradise protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. When the band is captured by the Blue Meanies, a soldier is sent to Liverpool to fetch the Fab Four, who hop in the submarine and save the day. This is one of the more fun animated features, and along with A Hard Day's Night, made the Beatles not only a brilliant band, but also true crossover stars, not only monitarily, but quality as well.

Overall this project sounds interesting, but I hope that they don't try to stick with the original, as much as I love it. Could they pull it off, sure, but the original's style is so original and all it's own, at least in the realm of film, they need to do something different.

What do YOU think?

Go see something good!