The New York Times looks into "trailerization" - the reworking of existing songs to maximize their impact in trailers for films and TV shows. One of the most successful recent examples is David James Rosen's take on Kate Bush’s 'Running Up That Hill' which he tweaked into a thunderous version for 'Stranger Things'. The Times explains different types of trailerizations: "There are reimaginations, which are usually instrumental covers by composers. There are overlays, where elements are added to a song in varying degrees. Then there are remixes, where the source material is distinctly altered, often to shift the context".

A new David Bowie documentary 'Moonage Daydream', directed by Brett Morgen (best known for the Kurt Cobain doc, Montage of Heck) and the first Bowie doc to have the approval of the late musician’s estate, is set to screen at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The film is described as both a concert documentary and an “experimental cinematic odyssey” that will track Bowie’s life and career, delving into his work as a musician, but also his multidisciplinary approach to his craft. Ethan Coen’s doc, 'Jerry L

Good titles
April 02, 2022

Top 11 songs that became movie titles

A nice little blog post by Medium about movie titles inspired by songs. The top spot is taken by Inner Circle's 'Bad Boys' - a song "about teenage life and becoming semi-aggressive as you start growing up... it’s about troubled kids who have problems at home”. The song was picked up in 1995 by the 'Bad Boys' action comedy franchise, which stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two Miami narcotics detectives.

The first trailer for Robert Eggers' epic Viking revenge saga 'The Northman', has been released, and it features Björk making her first on-screen appearance since 2000’s 'Dancer in the Dark', playing a seeress. Alexander Skarsgård, plays Amieth, a Viking prince seeking revenge for his murdered father. The story is based on the medieval Scandinavian legend, which served as the inspiration for Shakespeare’s 'Hamlet'. Ethan Hawke plays Ameith’s father, King Horvendill, who is married to Queen Gudrun, portrayed by Nicole Kidman.

“Honestly, even if their music didn’t completely get inside me, I would have wanted to make a movie about them” - director Todd Haynes says in a Rolling Stone interview about his Velvet Underground documentary. “It’s that whole era, which was so revolutionary, but it’s also what they were trying to do as well in reaction to that era as well. Even in their little world, they were heavy. It’s about being resistant. It’s saying no. That’s so important to rock & roll”.

Life on Mars, love in SanFran
September 27, 2021

Trailer: Alana Haim and Tom Waits in new Paul Thomas Anderson movie

Alana Haim of the sisters trio Haim stars in the new movie ''Licorice Pizza', directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, a frequent collaborator of her family trio. The film also stars Tom Waits, as well as Cooper Hoffman (the son of Anderson favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman), Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, and Benny Safdie. The film is about “growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973”. The trailer, soundtracked by David Bowie’s 'Life on Mars?' is out now.

Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukanen has reacted to the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, which features their hit single, ‘White Rabbit’. “We started in the Matrix” - Kaukanen told the Rolling Stone - “glad to be there again!”. 'The Matrix Resurrections', which sees leads Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss returning, is due for release in December.

"Jubilant, unapologetically massive, and bursting with a cozy, melancholic sense of communal belonging" - RogerEbert.com's writer reviews musical drama 'In the Heights' about a shop in Washington Heights, New York City, where each member of the community pursues their dream of a better life. MovieFreak.com sees "a joyously rhapsodic spectacle", whereas Wall Street Journal asks "How much pleasure can you take? How much joy can you stand without flinching?".

Guardian goes into reasons why movie studies are remaking classic rock songs into epic pop songs for movie trailers. Nirvana's 'Something in the Way' got a completely new identity in last summer’s teaser for 'The Batman'. Teaser for Marvel Studios’ 'Eternals' revamps Skeeter Davis’ country ballad 'The End of the World', the preview for 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' took Harry Nilsson’s 'One' and added an arsenal of menacing symphonics, the teaser for The Suicide Squad twisted the easy grooves of Steely Dan’s 'Dirty Work' into pummelling beats and the trailer for last year’s 'Wonder Women 1984' featured an epic reimagining of New Order’s 'Blue Monday'. Will Quiney, the theatrical music supervisor at trailer house GrandSon, explains: “You can create a narrative with your music selection. If you can come up with an amazing idea for a song and have that trailerised in a really cool way that blows them away, you’re going to beat the competition, you’re going to win that trailer.” says . “agrees: “Music is the secret sauce to a great trailer and the best trailer editors know how to make the most of it”.

"'Sound of Metal' is a painful, thoughtful, sombre film that telescopes a long story into just a few months" - Guardian's critic writes reviewing a movie about a metal band drummer going deaf. Bradshaw believes the movie is trying too much, with the main actor (and musician) Riz Ahmed giving a "typically fierce and focused performance" which "clarifies the drama and delivers the meaning of Ruben’s final epiphany. He gives the film energy and point". So, worth watching thanks to the musician, right Mr. Bradshaw?

Country rockers Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson are the latest to be cast for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film 'Killers of the Flower Moon', Deadline reports. Jesse Plemons would take on the lead role, next to Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. 'Killers of the Flower Moon' follows FBI agent Tom White (Plemons) as he tries to solve the serial murders of members of the Osage Nation over oil rights. A prominent local cattleman named William Hale (De Niro) and his cousin Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) were among those implicated in the murders. Isbell will make his feature film debut as Bill Smith, an adversary of Burkhart, while Simpson portrays the infamous rodeo champion and bootlegger Henry Grammer.

Crime drama 'City of Lies' about the murder of Notorious B.I.G. is finally coming out next week (it was postponed three years ago due to Johnny Depp’s public image at the time). 'City of Lies' is based on the true story of Biggie's death in 1997. The movie follows a retired LAPD detective named Russell Poole (Depp) and a journalist (Forest Whitaker) as they try to uncover the identities of those responsible for the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie.

Monty Python member Eric Idle shared an insight into the production of the troupes 1975 film 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', Rolling Stone reports. According to his tweet, British rock stars were essential in financing it - Led Zeppelin contributed £31,500, Pink Floyd Music ponied up £21,000, and Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson put in £6,300 of his own money. Monty Python's other movie 'Life of Brian' came out thanks to a musician as well - The Beatles legend George Harrison mortgaged his house and put that money in the movie.

The movie 'Shoplifters of the World' is based on a (maybe) actual life incident from 1987 when an impassioned Smiths fan takes a local radio DJ hostage at gunpoint and forces him to play nothing but Smiths tracks for a night. The movie is coming out on March 26, starring Ellar Coltrane ('Boyhood') as the radio station hijacker and Joe Manganiello ('True Blood') as the radio station DJ.

With blue eyes wide open
December 18, 2020

Creed singer to play Frank Sinatra

Creed singer Scott Stapp will be portraying Frank Sinatra in the upcoming biopic about Ronald Reagan, simply called 'Reagan'. The biopic will feature a scene in which Stapp will perform as Sinatra at the Cocoanut Grove, "at a time when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild and the club was a staple of old Hollywood", Billboard reports. The film, directed by Sean McNamara, is slated to arrive in 2021, and it will find Dennis Quaid in the titular role of Ronald Reagan.

British actor and MC Riz Ahmed is critically lauded for his portrayal of a drummer who goes deaf in movie 'Sound of Metal', but the role also broadened himself. "When I started talking about things in my life or even in [the character] Ruben's life that were emotional, I found myself really physically getting emotional, tearing up at times in a way that I would not have if I was just verbally communicating", Ahmed said, adding - "in some ways, a fuller kind of communication — a more embodied kind of communication — is possible within deaf culture and signing culture".

"The oppressed will always find a way to feel their joy" - a critic at RobertEbert.com writes about 'Lovers Rock' by Steve McQueen, about young people of first- and second-generation West Indian background in London who make house-parties listening to lovers rock (a romantic style of reggae). Vulture deemed it "a transfixing romance not just between the two characters at its center but one about the beauty of the human body, the succor of an energetic party, and the possibility in the hush of a night". Empire says it's "a woozy, musical fever dream with wit, sexiness and one unforgettable extended singalong".

Like a director
September 16, 2020

Madonna to direct a movie about - herself

Madonna will co-write and direct a movie about her rise to fame, with the help of Oscar-winning 'Juno' screenwriter Diablo Cody, Entertainment Weekly reports. The script is expected to chart Madonna's rise from Michigan, to the slums of New York City, to global superstardom - via songs such as 'Like A Virgin' and 'Vogue'. “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive" - Madonna said in an announcement of the movie.

Music manager and promoter David McLean is turning his career into film, 'Schemers', which tells the story of his early days attempting to book Iron Maiden. He shared some anecdotes with the Guardian: "I was used to promoting bands who turned up in a transit van but Iron Maiden turned up in a huge tour bus. Their tour manager said: 'Where’s the crew?' I went: 'The crew?' I ran outside, found four inebriated people standing nearby and went: 'That’s the crew'... The venue held 2,000 but we’d only sold 200 tickets because I’d forgotten to put up any posters. We took the band to the pub. When we came back, people were queuing round the block. It sold out on the door".

Two great things - at once
September 04, 2020

The best moments of music in movies

"There are fewer pleasures greater, at the movies, than the moment a perfect track starts at a perfect moment, and the marriage of music and film creates an entirely new beast, a work of art in that new connection alone" - the Quietus writes in the introduction to their great list of 50 best "needle-drop" moments in films (complete with all the videos).

Haim singer-songwriter Alana Haim will make her feature debut in Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled ’70s coming-of-age film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Details remain scarce, but it’s being reported that Haim and Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, will be the lead stars of the ensemble drama that’s set in the San Fernando Valley. Together, they join star Bradley Cooper, who was previously attached to the project. Anderson has been steadily working with Haim since 2017’s 'Something to Tell You'.

To watch list
September 02, 2020

The 35 best hip-hop movies

Complex made a list of the 35 best hip-hop movies covering four decades of hip-hop history on celluloid. The youngest movie on the list is 'Roxanne Roxanne' from 2017, directed by Michael Larnell, telling the story of one of the first female solo rappers, Roxanne Shante. The No. 1 movie - 'Wild Style', directed by Charlie Ahearn in 1983, depicted hip-hop’s early days, offering the initial look at its four elements: MCing, DJing, graffiti, and breakdancing.

The auction for Wu-Tang Clan's seventh studio album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' and its notorious aftermath is being turned into a Netflix film, Collider reports. The upcoming project - named after the album - is being helmed by 'Brittany Runs a Marathon' director Paul Downs Colaizzo, and the film aims to tell the true story behind pharma-villain Martin Shkreli's acquisition of the one and only copy of Wu-Tang Clan's 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'.

Something in the bat
August 24, 2020

Impressive new 'Batman' trailer set to Nirvana music

Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Matt Reeves’ 'The Batman' set to Nirvana's 'Something in the Way'. Strings added to the Nirvana original, and the grandiose undertone in general make for an impressive trailer. Forthcoming re-imagining of the Batman stars Robert Pattinson as The Dark Knight, set in grey and realistic Gotham City. Zoe Kravitz is seen in the trailer as Catwoman.

Björk is to star as the Slav Witch in the new film from 'The Lighthouse' director Robert Eggers, a Viking epic titled 'The Northman', the Film Stage reports. Slav Witch is her first role since starring in Lars Von Trier’s 'Dancer in the Dark' in 2000. Björk will be starring alongside Willem Dafoe, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang and Bill Skarsgård, as well as Alexander Skarsgård, who will be taking on the lead role as a Viking named Amleth. Björk and Matthew Barney’s daughter Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney will also be part of the ensemble.

"It was a blast. It's probably the most fun I've had on a project in a long time" - Savan Kotecha, collaborator to Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Ellie Goulding, told BBC about his latest project, Netflix's new comedy 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga', which celebrates the world's largest live music event. Director David Dobkin envisioned the film’s songs walking the fine line between satire and homage - “It’s okay if it’s funny, but it has to be really good music. It has to still be great and just kitschy enough to be Eurovision, because that’s part of what’s fun about Eurovision". Kotecha was brought in to oversee every aspect of the film's music - check out the songs on Variety.

Ace of films
June 17, 2020

Lemmy Kilmister biopic in the works

Ian Fraser 'Lemmy' Kilmister of the iconic Motörhead is the subject of the new biopic as a "vanguard and talisman of the loudest, dirtiest and most liberated rock ’n’ roll band in the world", according to The Hollywood Reporter. The upcoming film, 'Lemmy,' is to be directed by Greg Olliver, who spent three years following Motörhead and Kilmister for the 2010 documentary of the same name. The film will cover Lemmy’s youth in England, his stints as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and a member of Hawkwind, and his legendary 40-year run as the driving force behind Motörhead. Loudwire suggests 13 actors who could play Lemmy (aren't they way to pretty to play him?!?).

Iconic comedy duo released the official trailer for their new movie 'Bill & Ted Face the Music', and Arcade Fire's Win Butler can be seen in that short clip playing a "member of the future council". He's seen for a few moments wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and he doesn't speak, which all makes him look kinda funny. 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' hits theaters on August 21st. The movie follows now-middle-aged William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Theodore “Ted” Logan (Keanu Reeves) as they’re tasked with penning an original song to save the world.

The clip features Johnny Flynn as David Bowie in conversation with Marc Maron, who portrays his publicist Ron Oberman, Variety reports. “All it takes is one believer to change the world, right? And we’ve got two,” Maron says. “You believe in yourself, don’t you?”. Producers insist the upcoming film is not a biopic, with writer and director Gabriel Range saying in a statement - “I set out to make a film about what makes someone become an artist; what actually drives them to make their art”. If focuses on Bowie’s transformation into Ziggy Stardust in the early ’70s.

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