Posted on 08/06/2008 8:00:21 AM PDT by Publius804
'Taking Woodstock' set to start
Emile Hirsch, Demetri Martin to star in Ang Lee pic
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Focus Features will begin production late this month on "Taking Woodstock," scripted by James Schamus and to be directed by Ang Lee.
Lee's ensemble cast includes Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Liev Schreiber.
Pic is an adaptation of the memoir of Elliot Tiber, who played a role in helping the historic 1969 music fest unfold on his neighbor's farm (Daily Variety, April 22).
Less than a month ago, Focus had been thinking about postponing the start of production over concerns that a possible Screen Actors Guild strike could force a shutdown later this year. But numerous studios have begun to move forward on feature starts, and it's understood that Focus has worked out contingency plans in the event of a work stoppage.
Demetri Martin ("The Daily Show With Jon Stewart") had already been set to play Tiber, an aspiring interior designer in Greenwich Village obliged to run the family business, a Catskills motel. In summer 1969, he found himself at the center of a generation-defining experience when he volunteered the motel to be the home base for Woodstock concert organizers after his neighbor, Max Yasgur, made his farm available for the event.
Staunton and Henry Goodman will play Tiber's parents, and Jonathan Groff (currently starring in the Shakespeare in the Park production of "Hair" in Gotham) will play Woodstock organizer Michael Lang; Hirsch will play a recently returned Vietnam vet, Eugene Levy will play Yasgur, and Schreiber is in talks to play a transvestite named Vilma.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
I thought the organizers of this event hired the Hells Angels as “security guards” and that they beat a Black Panther to death in front of the stage. (Or was that Monterrey?)
Directed by Ang Brokeback Lee.
Maybe they’ll pick up their trash this time.
“I thought the organizers of this event hired the Hells Angels as “security guards” and that they beat a Black Panther to death in front of the stage. (Or was that Monterrey?)”
That was the Rolling Stones Altamont Concert in California on December 6, 1969.
That was Altamont, also in California.
Woodstock is a misnomer. Originally it was to be held there. The REAL organizers didn’t even get to enjoy the concert because they were doing too much background work to keep things from totally going wrong.
That included paying bands up front, making arrangments to fly them in, etc. etc.
It was a logistical nightmare. Michael Lang got to be at the backstage party. Someone dosed the Who with acid in their drinks. Pete Townsend still calls it the worst concert they had to play.
Thanks! After all these years, the Concerts seem to “run together”.
Michael Lang was part of Altamont. The Stones themselves wanted the Hell’s Angels for protection. They’d used them before in England (different motorcycle club chapter).
And the man who was stabbed to death had pulled a gun. The “Angels” were hired for security. Protecting the singer and the crowd is part of that.
The man was cleared at trial.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Thanks Wegee. Interesting details I’d forgotten. Hope you rode out the “Storm” OK. We had 7” of rain at our house in West Chambers County but we’re high and dry so no flooding.
They also beat up Marty Balin the singer for the Jefferson Airplane. It was a disaster. “Flower Power” was dead. If I watch any of those festivals now, it’s Monterrey. Interesting that The Beatles didn’t play at ANY of those concerts during that period. Lennon played one in Toronto that wasn’t too bad except he let Yoko sing......
By the way, the South Park episode "Die, Hippie, Die!" is a great lampooning of the self-righteous, self-important liberal Boomers.
Stan gets up on stage on day 9 of the hippie music festival in South Park:
Stan: Uh, excuse me. Excuse me; can I have your attention please? What are we doing? It's been nine days! Doesn't it seem like we should accomplish something?
Hippie: We're using the power of rock and roll to change the world! Woo!
Stan: Maybe instead of complaining about corporations being selfish, we should look at ourselves. I mean, is there anything more selfish than doing nothing but getting high and listening to music all day long?
Singer: He's right. It's time for all of us to focus our energy and get this hippie jam into full swing!
Many more great quotes from the episode here.
But I think it IS possible to make a movie about that event without showing any band performances or using any music by the bands in that concert film.
When’s someone going to make a film about the highway patrolman who saw the hordes of humanity decend on his small town and then come asking for food, lodging, and psychiatric care. Plus the antiauthoritarian attitudes meant he probably suffed a bit of torment and verbal abuse from young snots who made a “cool” comment on the way to the everlasting party while “the man” had to stay on the clock and do his job without losing his temper.
Kind of an anti-road movie.
Could be a good drama in there.
But Hollywood can't make that film. They have to continue to propagate the baby boomer myths.
Exclusive: Sex Pistols legend John Lydon blasts ‘coward’ Pete Doherty
Aug 1 2008 By John Dingwall
...“Anarchy In The UK is a damn fine folk tune,” Rotten insisted. “The Sex Pistols, Public Image and everything I have ever been involved with to me has always been folk music. If I can't sing my songs in a local social club or church gathering then they're pointless.I celebrate my culture and all of these songs are as valid today as they were 30 years ago, as indeed a true traditional folk song is. The words mean something. Maybe I'm lucky I just happened to speak the truth.
“All true folk music is from the heart and truthful. There is a difference between us and what you would jokingly call punk rock. Our audiences know it and the world is beginning to pay attention but it might be too late because the haemorrhoids are now causing a terrible problem.”
The irony of that statement, of course, is that, at 52, he is now almost 20 years older than Jagger was back in the Seventies when Rotten derided him for being too ancient to rock.
“Whatever age I am, the point is I give 100 per cent and that will never change,” Rotten says in his defence.
“That requires a helluva lot of energy.” Recalling the doors that opened for new bands in the wake of punk, Rotten added: “Bands like the Rolling Stones procured for themselves a system of hierarchy in the industry and they cancelled any opportunity for young bands to break in.
“They closed the doors on us and I have never viewed them very well because of that. Although Ron Wood is a great chap, fun to hang out with, but what does that mean?
“The wonderful world of entertainment was totally dominated by the rigidity of what was called the hippie movement. They became the new Nazis and they poisoned the music industry. They absolutely did."
Meanwhile, he insists Live At: Loch Lomond is a far better music festival than Glastonbury despite the fact that it is still finding its feet.
"Glastonbury was a tragedy," he said. "It originated as a hippy fest when hippiedom worked. Then rave was introduced to Glastonbury which was wonderful. Now I look at it and it is like Butlins for the middle-class.
"It is so orchestrated. It was awful to see it. I felt the same way playing at the Isle Of Wight. It is orchestrated deck chair seating and gay rainbow flag waving. It's very, very absurd...
The Beatles wanted to attend the Toronto rock and roll festival to WATCH the older acts like Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis but Kim Fowley convinced the promoter to GET one of the Beatles.
And yeah, the Beatles never played one of these festivals. The Rolling Stones barely did. The Who were a substitution when Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys cancelled on Monterey Pop.
The Doors DID play these type of festivals, as did Led Zepplin, and a bunch of bands with more cred that Country Joe and the Fish.
And part of the reason for the crowd gathering in the park in Chicago in 1968 was the word was out that the Beatles or the Stones were going to play. In the end, it was the MC5 from Detroit, and there was no power (so they had to use the generator from a hot dog vendor’s wagon).
No problems with the storm except waited later to go in to work. I knew I could get to the office fine but then if there was trouble coming home...
In the end, I was one of a handful there and the drive home was like a Sunday afternoon.
I think part of the reason the Boomers refuse to accept that there is “anything else” is that Warner Brothers ran Woodstock into the highest grossing documentary film ever.
It blew away competing films (a number of which are not available on home video, probably due to ownership rights).
And then there are the festivals old and new that were never professionally filmed.
I think the culture is poorly served by expecting MTV and WB’s Rolling Stoned to “cover” all events regardless of corporate band involvement.
It was Woodstock that first made the music industry REALLY realize how much money could be made off of rock and roll. Only this wasn’t so much rock as it was blues boogie with sitars and flutes.
The Rita evacuation was MY Woodstock roadblock/roadtrip (24 hours to go 150 miles) but there will never be a movie about it.
Take it from at least one baby boomer, the late 60’s and most of the 70’s were horrible times to spend one’s youth.
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