MAGNOLIA PICTURES PICKS UP 'THE WRECKING CREW'

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THE GLORIOUS CORNER

Story By: G. H. HARDING

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 The Wrecking Crew Trailer




STING’S SHIP --- I’ll fess up and say that I was among the first to be somewhat dubious about Sting’s foray into Broadway, his The Last Ship, but, I caught last night’s performance and was literally blown away. It’s not perfect, but with stunning songs, staging and terrific acting from an excellent cast, and, a packed Neil Simon Theatre, it was pretty damn impressive.

The show closes tomorrow, so I'm quite sure many of the attendees were people who had wanted to see the show and just didn’t make it in the beginning.

The show tells the story of Sting’s childhood upbringing, in Newcastle; a town where ship building was the usual employment. The ship building stops; misery sets in and finally, one last ship is built, aided on by the town’s Father O’Brien (essayed by an incredibly strong and funny Fred Applegate).

Concurrent to this plot of the story of Gideon (Michael Esper) and Meg (Rachel Tucker), lovers when they were young, yet Gideon left and returns 15 years later to Meg and a young son, who turns out to be his.

The music is indelibly Sting. “All The Time,” “When We Dance” and “The Last Ship” are just beautiful. In fact, let me go on record now as saying I predict that Sting will perform several of these songs on his next tour with Paul Simon later this year.

Sting is an amazing artist; in all his years, he’s always done it his way. From The Police, to great albums like The Dream of The Blue Turtles and Soul Cages, to his terrific work with his Rainforest Foundation (with wife wife Trudie Styler); he’s astonishing. I saw his tour with Simon last year and he more than held his own and had one crackerjack band to boot.

Some of his projects are better than others, but they all burn with a terrific intensity and stunning style. Quintessential Sting.

WRECKING CREW COMING OUT --- From The Wrecking Crew’s Danny Tedesco: I know you've all been waiting patiently for the news of the Wrecking Crew Release. We are proud to announce that Magnolia Pictures has picked up the film for distribution.

Magnolia will release the film as a limited theatrical release and VOD (Video on Demand) at the same time. Magnolia has also produced a new one-sheet for the film .

Anyone that is receiving this email made this all happen. If you donated, saw the film, bought merchandise, told someone about the film or just signed on for info; that made the difference. We showed them that there is an audience for this film. It took years, but we all did it.

After 18 years, the film will finally be seen to a wider audience. On February 20th, the film will be open at the Bloor Cinema Theater Toronto, Canada.

On March 13th, we will be opening in New York at the IFC Center in New York and in Los Angeles at the NUART Theater.

The Wrecking Crew is the official story of the legendary musicians who played with the likes of The Beach Boys; The Mamas and The Papas; The Monkees; Nancy Sinatra; Bing Crosby; Bobby Vee; The Partridge Family; The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, John Denver, and The Grass Roots.

I’ve seen it twice now and if you are a music person, this is a terrific film.

TREK ON --- Actor Simon Pegg has been set to co-write Star Trek 3, the film that just got Fast & Furious director Justin Lin aboard after Roberto Orci exited the helmer chair. He will co-write the script with Doug Jung, creator of the TNT series Dark Blue.

Pegg’s already a pivotal player in the JJ Abrams-produced pic having been in the two previous re-boots. In the forthcoming pic he'll of course will reprise his role as Montgomery Scott, the engineering wiz originated by James Doohan in the original 1960’s Gene Roddenberry series. Jung also wrote a film called Diamond, which is how he got the gig. They are just now getting underway.

Pegg certainly has the writing credits to back him up for such a job. With director Edgar Wright, he’s scripted the Wright-directed Cornetto-trilogy consisting of Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, as well as the cult-fave Run Fatboy Run.

As interesting a choice as Pegg is (and, I’m a huge champion of his), I'm wondering how the tenor of the script will change. As a true Trekker, I liked with Abrams did with his first two films, but he did change several things; like Spock was Spock, but he had a girlfriend (Zoe Saldana) and in the second film, almost became an action hero.

Anyway, I'm in … make it so!

OSCAR NOM FOR GLEN --- Glen Campbell has been nominated for an Academy Award for the song “I'm Not Gonna Miss You from the documentary Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me.

The nominations, which were announced this last week, also included a nod for veteran songwriter Diane Warren for Grateful from the film Beyond the Lights along with Common and John Legend who previously won the Golden Globe for Glory from the movie Selma.

The surprise nomination for Campbell comes as the singer/guitarist battles Alzheimer Disease. Glen revealed that he was ill in 2011 and has since released two albums and toured for a final time. He is currently a resident of a Nashville area nursing facility.

“I'm Not Gonna Miss You,” written with producer Julian Raymond, was Campbell's final song, recorded in January of 2013.

CLOSING NOTES --- Walking down 52nd street last night to see The Last Ship at The Neil Simon Theatre; I was aghast by what had closed on that block – Roseland and Lucky Cheng’s (though in retrospect that outpost never really deserved to be on that block.) There’s still Victor’s Café (awesome Cuban food) and the newly-renovated Gallagher’s Steak House. A Tom Cuddy fave …

Speaking of The Last Ship, interesting to not that two of the producers are Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss … the original A&M Records duo; the label that had both The Police and Sting’s early-excellent solo albums. Visionary talents for sure …

Congrats to actress Rebecca Holden and producer (Robey) Joel Diamond ... married last week ...

Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork will do two dates in Canada in April ...