paul mccartney Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Of the four actors just cast in Robert Zemeckis' remake of Yellow Submarine, Peter Serafinowicz is by far the most appropriate. Americans primarily know him as Simon Pegg's flatmate in Shaun of the Dead and maybe also Pegg's arch-nemesis on the British TV series Spaced (he also recently appeared in Couples Retreat). But Serafinowicz is a well-known impersonator in the UK who has lampooned the Fab Four multiple times on his sketch series The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

Though Zemeckis cast him as the voice of Paul McCartney for his performance capture remake, Serafinowicz portrayed all of The Beatles in a recurring bit called "Ringo Remembers," in which the drummer recalls significant events in the history of the band and the members' solo careers. The silliest sketch of the bunch features his portrayals of John, Paul, George and Ringo during the recording of the Let It Be album and involves the band playing and pooping on the rooftop of the Apple Building. Better clips parody Paul's recording of a Christmas song and John's writing of "Imagine," which is shown as initially going in a completely different direction.

My favorite of the sketches, though, and certainly the most movie-related, presents Ringo Starr's catchy theme song written for the 007 film Goldfinger, which of course wasn't used. It's a cute little gag making fun of Ringo's reputation for writing and singing simple songs that seem made for children. Check out the video, with proper James Bond-intro graphics, after the jump.

One of the films playing at next year's Sundance Film Festival is Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor Wood's account of John Lennon's early days and childhood -- how his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) raised him, how he met Paul McCartney, and how they then formed The Quarrymen. It's an adaptation of Lennon's sister's memoir (The Private John Lennon: The Untold Story from His Sister) and it was adapted by Matt Greenhalgh, the scribe who wrote the bang-on, excellent account of Joy Division -- Control.

Over at Empire, you can check out a clip from the film, where Thomas Sangster's Paul McCartney stops by to teach John (Aaron Johnson) how to play the guitar. After learning some chords, Lennon starts singing and playing "Blue Moon" before the stern Mimi promptly kicks them out of the house. Oh, if only she knew at that moment who and what he would become!

It's a great, surreal clip -- after all of the accomplishments of those two men, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when Lennon was learning, clumsily, squeezing his way through simple chords. These are the same fingers that later came to "Come Together," "Norwegian Wood," and of course, "Imagine."

Since this clip is all about the burgeoning collaboration between two iconic figures ... what are your favorite Lennon/McCartney songs? And, as an added perk, the trailer is after the jump.

Robert Zemeckis just can't get enough of his 3D motion capture, and clearly no film or concept will elude his grasp. According to Variety, Zemeckis and Disney are in the middle of a complicated deal that will allow them to remake the Beatles' psychedelic cartoon Yellow Submarine.

It's been a long time since I saw Yellow Submarine and if I need a refresher on the plot, you might as well. The trippy adventure takes place in Pepperland, a magical undersea place protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The music-hating Blue Meanies attack, seal the band in a bubble, and turn the citizens into statues. The Mayor seeks out the help of the Fab Four, who travel in a yellow submarine through several musical interludes. The power of the Beatles restores Pepperland to its colorful, musical self before returning to London. Naturally, it's enjoyed best if you're on drugs.

The remake negotiations have been taking place for months, as Zemeckis wants to use all the original Submarine tunes and spin it off into an original Broadway musical, but meanwhile the Beatles catalog is a complicated thing. The goal is to have it filmed, and in theaters by the 2012 Summer Olympics, which are taking place in London. Zemeckis is hoping that a 3D motion-capture approach will introduce the Beatles to a new generation, who are already enjoying a surge of youth interest thanks to the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band.

A love affair with the James Bond series is like a marriage; it's for life, and it's definitely a "richer or poorer, better or worse" proposition. Some days you get Casino Royale (2006) or Goldfinger (1964), where everything is bliss, but then other days you get Grace Jones or a cameo from Madonna or someone named "Christmas Jones." Some days are Connery and some are Lazenby. Some days your director is Guy Hamilton or Martin Campbell, and some days your director is John Glen or Marc Forster. But, like a diamond, the imperfections are what make it all worthwhile. From among the dregs, then, here are a few of my favorite things:

1. The entire supporting cast in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
I confess it's one of the weakest Roger Moore entries, but come on! Motherf---in' Christopher "Dracula/Dooku/Saruman" Lee is the bad guy! And Hervé Villechaize as his diminutive villainous sidekick! And sex-goddess Britt Ekland as the Bond girl! In a bikini! And Swedish model Maud Adams, who would return as "Octopussy"! And Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn! And Soon-Tek Oh as Lieutenant Hip. The only drawback is that the goldurn redneck sheriff returns (see #2)...

2. The Paul McCartney Theme Song in Live and Let Die (1973)
Some fans like this early Roger Moore entry, but Moore hadn't yet settled into the role yet, and I call it "the one with the redneck sheriff and the idiotic boat chase." But conversely, it has one of the best -- if not the best -- song of the series, with its slow build, peculiar tempo changes and odd lyrics ("in this ever changing world in which we live in.") This was McCartney at his crazy out-there best, and it brings much goodwill to the rest of the film.

Week after week, I focus on the good and/or bad concerning moviegoing and the movie theatre industry. But as passionate as I am about the subjects of this column, I've never really felt strongly enough to label any one person either a hero or a villain to moviegoers. Perhaps the closest I've come to calling someone a hero was when I finally had my first experience with an Alamo Drafthouse cinema. On the other hand, I've certainly wanted to call a lot of people villains, including whoever was responsible for my worst moviegoing experience in years and whoever came up with the awful idea to produce scented pre-show ads.

So, it was by some sort of coincidence that last week actually brought news of both a remarkably heroic moviegoer and a terribly villainous theatre owner. Of course, you're welcome to disagree with me as I celebrate the former and castigate the latter. The interesting thing about these two individuals is that some of you may see my hero as a villain, and vice versa. In fact the law has deemed the former a criminal, and meanwhile tons of moviegoers in the UK are championing the actions of the latter. No wonder film exhibition is in such dire straits when there's such disagreement about how to improve the moviegoing experience.

If there's something Martin Scorsese knows about almost as much as movies, it's music from the '60s. Apparently. Why else would he be on such a roll these days with music documentaries on iconic acts from that time? First there was the wonderful Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home; now he's about to release a Rolling Stones doc titled Shine a Light; and he's just announced another doc he's going to make about George Harrison. According to Variety, the film will be more of a comprehensive biography, covering Harrison's time in The Beatles, as a solo artist, his Eastern religious/philosophical interests and even his stint a movie producer (his Handmade Films gave us Monty Python's Life of Brian and Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits). Scorsese is producing with Olivia Harrison (George's widow) and his No Direction Home producer Nigel Sinclair, and filming will begin with some interviews later this year. It will take awhile to finish, of course. The untitled pic will again be edited by David Tedeschi, who also cut the other two Scorsese music docs.

Maybe if time permits, Scorsese can do more '60s icons after he's done with Harrison. Neil Young may not be worth another film, and The Doors doc would probably be better suited to Oliver Stone, but surely we could use a Scorsese-directed film about Eric Clapton or any of the girl groups (The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Marvellettes, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las) he likes to use for his soundtracks. Hey, he could just do a doc on girl groups. It's so good to see Scorsese getting back to music docs so long after working as an assistant director on Woodstock, and later as director of The Last Waltz, and I can't wait to see what else he's got planned. Anyway, there's no use thinking so far ahead. I'm still simply waiting for Shine a Light, which doesn't come out until April, and I'm definitely looking forward to the Harrison film, which will feature a ton of archival footage provided by his family and is expected to feature surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

I finally, at long last (and after an irritating technical snafu involving a DVD that suddenly acted like it was possessed just as I was really getting into it), got to see the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson? And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him?. What's that, you say? Who the hell is Harry Nilsson, and why does this film have such a long title? If you're around my mom's age, chances are you already know who Nilsson was. Harry Nilsson was one of the most prolific singer-songwriters to come out of his generation, and the title is a reference to the song "Everybody's Talkin'" from Oscar-winning film Midnight Cowboy. Nilsson sang the song (which he did not, in fact, write) for the film, and won a Grammy for it. His album Nilsson Schmilsson was nominated for just about every Grammy it could have been.

This documentary about the singer-songwriter with one of the best voices of his generation has all the elements of a fine narrative film: A boy, abandoned by his father; a childhood and adolescence spent living with various relatives; that lucky first break that led to more; the son he later abandoned himself, as his father did before him; the redemption he found later with his second wife and their kids. This isn't a fictional tale though, it was Nilsson's life. Like a lot of artists, Nilsson used his art as a means to express his feelings and talk about his life. One of his better-known songs, "1941", chronicles his history with his father: