JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN [November 2] - Punk rock warlord Joe Strummer, frontman for pioneering punk band The Clash, gets his due in insider Julien Temple’s documentary, which features interviews with the likes of Bono (of the not-punk band U2), Martin Scorsese (multiple maker of fine music docs himself, see below) and John Cusack, who adapted and starred in the film version of Nick Hornby’s punk-flavored High Fidelity. Also check out one of Strummer’s last interviews, shot at WCCA while on tour in 2001 with his last band, The Mescaleros.
AUGUST RUSH [November 21] - There’s so much “power of music” vibe in the trailer for this romantic drama that it may as well be about a superhero called “MusicMan” (known by day as the mild-mannered symphony hall janitor J.P. Jellyroll) who shuffles from place to place (while humming a jaunty tune) and thwarts evil. No, this one is about a musically gifted but doleful moppet (played by dramatically gifted but doleful moppet Freddie Highmore) who goes on a quest to find his birth parents, played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (”The Tudors”) and Keri Russell (Waitress), with Robin Williams as The Crazy Guy With The Hat Who Lives In The Park.
I’M NOT THERE [November 21] - Like the folks whose faces grace coins and stamps, so too do music icons have to wait until they are late music icons to have their own biopics. Unless you’re Bob Dylan. This way-out take on the folk rocker’s life has six different actors playing the Hall-Of-Famer – Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, 14-year-old black actor Marcus Carl Franklin…and Cate Blanchett (yes, Cate Blanchett). If anyone can pull this off, it is co-writer/director Todd Haynes, whose other musical flights of fancy include the glam-tastic Velvet Goldmine (1998) and Superstar (1987), a biopic of Karen Carpenter shot using Barbie dolls (and unauthorized Carpenters music, which is why it is only available underground).
SWEENEY TODD [December 21] - You wouldn’t know from the trailer, but this ghastly Tim Burton film about a barber who bakes bad people into pies is a musical, based on the Sondheim show. Frequent partner in crime Johnny Depp plays the title role, and judging from this first look at the joint Warner/DreamWorks venture, neither studio knows what the heck this bird is. Neither do they seem to want to let any of the whole concept’s innate humor show. They better figure it out soon – they’re propping up their holiday line-ups with the big-budget tentpole.
SHINE A LIGHT [April 8, 2008] - All-around proficient guy Martin Scorsese, who finally won an Oscar this year (for The Departed) returns to the music documentary territory which he made fertile with The Last Waltz (about the last gasp of the supergroup The Band) and more recently, No Direction Home, about Bob Dylan. This one is about The Rolling Stones (perhaps you’ve heard of them), shot on their recent tour and covering their entire storied career. Why release it to theatres, you ask? When you’ve got a brand like IMAX behind you, projecting your wizened faces on to some of the largest screens in the world, amping up your music to pee-inducing levels (so the people who have gone deaf with you at your concerts can hear it), why not? [See also the early IMAX film, At The Max, for Stones performances more vintage).