Written by Jon Williams
It was a
cruel and heartbreaking year in the entertainment industry, with the passing of
so many larger-than-life figures, so many of them in unexpected fashion. And
unfortunately, 2016 ended much the same way it began. Our first
blog post of the year reflected on the passing of David
Bowie, and it was followed
up a week later with one memorializing Alan
Rickman and Glenn
Frey. It got no easier from there; some of the notable names we lost in
2016 include Abe
Vigoda, Harper
Lee, Garry
Shandling, Patty
Duke, Merle
Haggard, Doris
Roberts, Prince,
Muhammad
Ali, Anton
Yelchin, Elie
Wiesel, Garry
Marshall, Juan
Gabriel, Gene
Wilder, Arnold
Palmer, Leonard
Cohen, Leon
Russell, Florence
Henderson, Alan
Thicke, and Zsa
Zsa Gabor.
Seeing those
names all listed together, it’s a pretty stark list of so many talented people.
And sadly, even the holiday season offered no respite. On December 24 we lost Richard
Adams, author of the classic Watership
Down (which George R.R. Martin called “one of the three great fantasy
novels of the twentieth century”) as well as several other well-received novels.
Then, the next day, came the passing of pop superstar George
Michael, a groundbreaking figure in popular culture who won a Grammy Award
for Album of the Year for his debut solo album, 1987’s Faith.
On Monday of
this week, Carrie
Fisher passed away. Fisher, of course, will forever be most associated with
her role playing Princess Leia in Star
Wars Episodes IV-VI, and then
later in The
Force Awakens, but there was much more to her than just that one role,
iconic as it may be. In addition to her acting career, she was also an
acclaimed writer, responsible for the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge, as well as the
screenplay for the
film starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. Her one-woman show Wishful
Drinking was turned into a successful book, and her most recent memoir,
The
Princess Diarist, was released earlier this year. What many fans don’t
know is that she put her writing talent to good use during her Hollywood
career, serving as an uncredited “script doctor” to punch up dialogue for such
films as the
Star Wars prequels, Hook,
Sister
Act, Scream
3, and The
Wedding Singer, among others.
What makes
the story even sadder is that Fisher’s mother, Debbie
Reynolds, passed away just one day later. An actress, singer, and dancer,
Reynolds earned a Golden Globe nomination at the age of 18 for Most Promising
Newcomer, and her breakout came when she starred opposite Gene Kelly in 1952’s Singin’
in the Rain. She followed that up with roles in films like The
Affairs of Dobie Gillis, Bundle
of Joy, and The
Unsinkable Molly Brown. More recent performances included a recurring
role on Will & Grace and as
Liberace’s mother in Behind
the Candelabra. She even did some voice acting, starting with Charlotte’s
Web in 1973 and continuing through The
Penguins of Madagascar. The relationship between Reynolds and Fisher is
explored in the documentary Bright Lights,
which will air on HBO next month.
As we get
set to watch the ball drop on 2016 this weekend, we can only hope that the
coming year will be a kinder one. In the meantime, libraries can help keep the
memories of all these wonderful performers alive by sharing with patrons the
incredible work they left behind.
Written by Jon Williams
Last week, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rolled into
theatres, thrilling fans eagerly anticipating the franchise’s first standalone
movie. It has dominated the box office since then, earning more than $350
million worldwide with another big weekend coming up. While the movie won’t be
available on DVD and Blu-ray for a while, fans can relive the excitement with
the novelization
(also available for younger
listeners). With such popularity, patrons are sure to be interested in
exploring not just the story surrounding the movie, but other movies from the
new cast as well.
The first
place to start is with James Luceno’s novel Catalyst,
which ties directly into Rogue One.
It tells the story of brilliant scientist Galen Erso and how he is pulled into
the Death Star project by Director Orson Krennic. In 2014, Luceno also wrote
the novel Tarkin,
detailing the early career of another character who figures prominently in Rogue One, as well as the original Star Wars movie, 1977’s Episode
IV: A New Hope.
One “new”
character introduced in Rogue One is
Saw Gerrera, the leader of a Rebel extremist group. “New” is in quotation
marks, of course, because the character isn’t actually new at all. He first
appeared four years ago in the fifth season of Star
Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated series that bridged the gap between Episodes
II and III, Attack of the Clones
and Revenge of the Sith. At that
time, he was a young militant being trained by the likes of Anakin Skywalker;
his older, more experienced self will soon be joining this season of Star
Wars: Rebels, voiced by acclaimed actor Forest
Whitaker, who portrays him in Rogue
One.
Gerrera’s
function in the movie is to bring together the band of rebels who will attempt
to steal the Death Star plans. He can serve this function because he was once a
mentor to young Jyn Erso, daughter of the aforementioned Galen Erso, who helped
design the Death Star’s weapons system. Jyn is played by Felicity
Jones, who won an Academy Award for her performance in 2014’s The
Theory of Everything and has also appeared in such films as Inferno
and The
Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Bringing Jyn
into the Rebellion and leading the mission to help her find her father is
Captain Cassian Andor, played by Diego
Luna. Acting from a young age, Luna is an acting staple to Mexican
audiences. He was in the acclaimed film Y
Tu Mama Tambien as well as the sci-fi film Elysium,
among others. Andor in the film is accompanied by a droid sidekick, K-2SO,
played in a motion-capture performance by Alan
Tudyk. This was not his first robot portrayal, as he also played Sonny in I,
Robot. A prolific comic actor, Tudyk starred as one of the title pair
in Tucker
and Dale vs. Evil, and also as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball.
Throwing in
on the mission as well are the one-two punch of Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus. Îmwe
is a blind devotee of the Force who nonetheless is a valuable fighter. He’s
played by Donnie
Yen, a martial arts master who has starred in such films as Hero
and the Ip
Man trilogy. Malbus is his
gun-toting companion who serves as his protector on the rare occasions when he
needs one. Jiang
Wen is an acclaimed Chinese actor and filmmaker; Rogue One is his first film produced primarily for an
English-speaking audience.
The last
member of the team, getting them from place to place, is the defected Imperial
pilot Bodhi Rook, played by Riz
Ahmed. Ahmed was seen most recently in the hit HBO series The
Night Of, and he also starred opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.
He also features as a rapper (under the name Riz MC) on the Hamilton Mixtape. Needless to say, the past
couple of weeks have been phenomenal for his career.
Opposing the
Rebels in their efforts is Imperial officer Orson Krennic, overseer of the
Death Star construction project. He’s played by Ben
Mendelsohn, an Australian actor who has won an Emmy Award for his
performance in Netflix’s Bloodline.
He also appeared in The
Dark Knight Rises, and will star as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the
upcoming Robin Hood. And of course, a
Star Wars movie dealing with the
Rebellion against the Empire will be haunted by the specter of Darth Vader. The
Dark Lord of the Sith does appear briefly in Rogue One, with his familiar forbidding voice being provided once
again by James
Earl Jones.
Fans who
loved Rogue One will have all this to
explore, and there’s always plenty to enjoy from the ever-expanding galaxy far,
far away. SmartBrowse Star Wars on our
website to find all the movies and TV series, not to mention soundtracks and
audiobooks. In addition, patrons can head over to hoopla digital for a
collection of eBooks
and comics that
they can enjoy right away on their smartphones or tablets.
Written by Jon Williams
Space.
The final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship
Enterprise.
Its five-year mission:
To explore strange new worlds.
To seek out new life and new civilizations.
To boldly go where no man has gone before.
Those now-familiar
words were first heard on September 6, 1956, when the very first episode of the
original Star Trek television show
made its debut. In the fifty years since, Star Trek has become a true
touchstone, with phrases like “live long and prosper” and “beam me up, Scotty”
making their way into the cultural lexicon. The show made stars of its primary
cast members (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei,
Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig), and has spawned numerous
spinoffs, a movie franchise (including a reboot), and much more.
It seems
hard to believe now, but that first
Star Trek show ran for just three
seasons, as it didn’t become a true hit until it was syndicated and shown in
reruns. At that point, the original 79 episodes just weren’t quite enough, so,
in 1973, the show was revived for an animated
series that brought back all the original actors to voice their roles.
Although it was also short-lived (spanning 22 episodes), it was well-received,
even winning a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Series.
As the
animated series wound down, Star Trek was at something of a crossroads. There
was a demand for more, but it was unclear exactly what form it would take.
Plans went into motion for a new television series, to be titled Phase II, but numerous problems eventually
forced those plans to be scrapped. Instead, encouraged by the success that
science fiction films were finding at the box office, Star Trek producers instead revived earlier plans to bring the
Enterprise crew to the big screen. Those efforts paid off with 1979’s Star
Trek: The Motion Picture, again reuniting all the original cast members
in their familiar roles.
The success
of that movie spawned a franchise that would run for five more films featuring
the beloved original cast. They were: The
Wrath of Khan (1982), The
Search for Spock (1984), The
Voyage Home (1986), The
Final Frontier (1989), and The
Undiscovered Country (1991). It was with this last movie that Captain
Kirk’s iconic line of “where no man
has gone before” was updated to “where no one
has gone before,” eliminating the gender-biased and (in a galaxy filled with
aliens) species-biased language in keeping with the franchise’s ideals of
equality.
That was
when Captain Kirk first spoke those words, but it was not the first time Star
Trek fans had heard them that way. In September of 1987, Star
Trek: The Next Generation premiered on television, set 100 years after
the adventures of the original series and bringing a new cast (Patrick Stewart,
Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn,
Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, and Wil Wheaton) to the bridge of the Enterprise.
Highly popular, this series ran for seven seasons and made its own eventual
jump to the big screen. 1994’s Generations
bridged the gap, starring the entire Next
Generation cast and featuring several members of the original cast as well,
in a story that saw Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard team up with William
Shatner’s Captain Kirk. The Next Generation cast then stayed in theatres for
three more movies on their own: First
Contact (1996), Insurrection
(1998), and Nemesis
(2002).
The final
season of The Next Generation aired
in 1994, but that was far from the end of Star Trek on television. Before it
ended, in 1993, Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine featured an ensemble cast as the crew of a space
station in a contested region. Then, beginning in 1995, came Star
Trek: Voyager, which followed a new ship and crew helmed by Kate
Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway, trying to make their way home to Earth after being
stranded on the other side of the galaxy. Like The Next Generation, both of these series ran for seven seasons. In
2001, after Voyager’s conclusion, Star
Trek: Enterprise made its debut, starring Scott Bakula as the captain
of the very first Federation starship to be named Enterprise, in a prequel to
everything that had some before.
And of
course there is the new movie series. In 2009, after a 7-year absence from
theatres following Nemesis, Star Trek returned to the big screen in
a reboot
from J.J. Abrams starring a new cast (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban,
John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, and the late Anton Yelchin) in the roles of
the original crew, with Leonard Nimoy appearing as an older Spock in a nod to
the alternate timelines the different casts now occupy. That was followed up in
2013 with Star
Trek Into Darkness, and earlier this year with Star
Trek Beyond.
All of this,
and still Star Trek fans have plenty
to look forward to. In addition to a fourth film with the new cast, there is
also a new TV series in the works. Slated to debut in January, Star Trek: Discovery will detail the
adventures of a new ship and crew in the ten years previous to the events of
the original series. And of course, the TV series and movies are just a part of
what the Star Trek franchise has to
offer. SmartBrowse on our website for music scores and audiobooks, and you can
also direct patrons to hoopla digital for Star Trek comics, audiobooks, and other
novelties. Also, keep an eye out for a special Star Trek 50th anniversary flyer along with our September catalog
mailing.
Written by Jon Williams
The eyes of
the world will turn to Brazil tonight as the opening ceremonies for the 2016
Summer Olympic Games take place there. There has already been plenty of talk
leading up to this year’s games due to the less than ideal conditions in Rio,
but for the next two weeks, the drama will hopefully be confined to the
exploits of the athletes and teams as they compete for the gold in a myriad of
events.
With all the
excitement they generate, it’s no surprise that the Olympic Games are a much-explored
subject in popular culture, with tales both true and fictional. On the true
side, perhaps the most famous is Chariots
of Fire, the 1981 film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture,
telling the story of two runners in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. The iconic,
inspirational musical
score by Vangelis is nearly as well known as the movie itself. Running is
actually one of the most frequent Olympic topics; in the late ‘90s, two
different movies ( Prefontaine
and Without
Limits) explore the distance running career and tragically short life
of 1972 Olympian Steve Prefontaine.
More
recently, the movie Race
depicts the struggles Jesse Owens faced in his quest to become a track and
field legend, particularly with the 1936 Olympics being held in Germany under
the rule of Hitler. Some footage of Owens is on display in Leni
Riefenstahl’s Olympia, a
groundbreaking documentary of those same Games by a problematic figure. The
1936 Olympics are also the topic of the 2013 bestseller by Daniel James Brown, The
Boys in the Boat, a rousing story of that year’s U.S. rowing team.
Likewise, Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand (made into a 2014
movie) tells the tale of 1936 Olympian Louis Zamperini and his incredible
later exploits during World War II.
As much as
the Olympics are about triumph, too often they are also marred by tragedy. One Day in September (currently
unavailable) won the 2000 Academy Award for Best Documentary for its look at
the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games. The aftermath of that
event was portrayed in 2005’s Munich,
in which Eric Bana plays a Mossad agent assigned with tracking down the
perpetrators. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill are reportedly putting together
a movie that centers on the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta (a Games that, on
the flip side, also provided such uplifting moments as Muhammad Ali lighting
the torch and Kerri Strug sticking the landing that won gold for the women’s
gymnastics team).
Thankfully,
the Olympics have far more often inspired lighter fare. Just released on DVD
and Blu-ray, The
Bronze follows a former bronze-winning Olympic gymnast as she
reluctantly coaches an up-and-coming phenom. Strangely, though, for most
Olympics-related comedies, you have to turn to the Winter Games, which has
inspired such movies as The
Cutting Edge , Blades
of Glory, and the mother of them all, Cool
Runnings, about the fabled Jamaican bobsled team. And of course, we can’t
mention Winter Olympics-related movies without listing Miracle,
the story of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” U.S. hockey team that defeated the
heavily favoured Soviet team en route to an unlikely gold medal.
With the
competition getting into full swing first thing tomorrow morning, appetite for
all things Games-related is sure to be high. The titles listed here just
scratch the surface of all the great Olympics titles available, so be sure to
check out the
collection on our website for more. You can also point them toward our
selections of movies
and audiobooks on our
digital platform, hoopla digital.
Written by Jon Williams
We’ve noted
before that 2016 has been a difficult year in the entertainment industry,
having already lost a number of notable names. Sadly, that trend held true this
week with the passing of Garry Marshall, the legendary writer, director, and producer
of comedies for the screen both big and small. He was 81 years old.
Marshall
actually studied for a career in journalism, but he soon found his footing as a
comedy writer. The early to mid-1960s were quite a busy time for him. He
started off writing sketches for The
Tonight Show when Jack
Paar was the host, which soon led to gigs writing for some of the most
popular sitcoms of the era, such as The
Dick Van Dyke Show, The
Lucy Show, and Gomer
Pyle, USMC. In 1970 he had another hit on his hands when he, along with
partner Jerry Belson, adapted Neil Simon’s play The Odd Couple into the beloved TV
series starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.
And that’s
where Marshall’s TV career really skyrocketed. In 1974 he created the iconic
show Happy
Days, that idyllic look at American life in the 1950s and ‘60s through
the eyes of the Cunningham family. Spinning off from that show in 1976 came Laverne
& Shirley, which starred Marshall’s sister Penny. Then, in 1978, he
scored a real coup when he discovered Robin Williams and cast him as the title
alien in the show Mork
& Mindy, thus changing the face of comedy forever.
If that were
all the credits to Garry Marshall’s name, that would still be a pretty
outstanding career. But that’s not all by any means. Having worked exclusively
in television to that point, in 1982 he stepped into the director’s role for
his first feature film, Young Doctors in
Love (currently unavailable). One of the movie’s cast members was Hector
Elizondo, who became one of Marshall’s closest friends and would go on to have
at least a minor role in each of his movies to come. And what movies they
were—Marshall’s directorial credits include such well-loved films as Beaches,
Pretty
Woman, Runaway
Bride, and The
Princess Diaries. His final films were a trio of holiday-related
ensemble comedies: Valentine’s
Day, New
Year’s Eve, and this year’s Mother’s
Day.
Garry
Marshall had a stellar career in comedy, and by all accounts he was as fine a
person as he was an entertainer. His voice will be sadly missed, but library
patrons can continue to enjoy and explore his hilarious and timeless work. Make
sure you have all the classics listed above on your shelves, and you can
SmartBrowse his name on our website for more selections.
Written by Jon Williams
Theatregoers
heading to the box office this weekend will be faced with a plethora of
choices, as usual, but for many of them it will come down to one big one: will
it be Independence Day: Resurgence, opening
nearly twenty years after the
original, or will it be Finding Dory,
the charming animated sequel to Finding
Nemo, now in its second week of release? Tough call. And it won’t get
any easier next weekend, which sees the opening of two new adaptations of
beloved classic books.
One of these
is The BFG, which is based upon the 1982
novel by whimsical children’s author Roald Dahl. Brought to the screen by
director Steven
Spielberg (and with a soundtrack
by John Williams), it tells the fantastical tale of an orphan named Sophie, who
is kidnapped by what turns out to be a Big Friendly Giant (hence the title), an
outcast who needs her help to stop a band of giants with the not-so-friendly
tendency to eat other children. This is the first live-action version of The BFG to be produced; a made-for-TV
animated version came out in 1989.
The other
adaptation coming to theatres next week is The
Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander
Skarsgard as the fabled man raised in the jungle by apes after the death of
his parents. The character originated in the 1914 novel Tarzan
of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs and continued on through a number
of sequels.
Burroughs was a prolific writer in the sci-fi and fantasy genres; he also wrote
the Barsoom series (beginning with A
Princess of Mars) that eventually spawned the film John
Carter.
Tarzan,
though, is far and away Burroughs’s most famous creation; he is, in fact, one
of the most well-known characters in fiction, due in part (or maybe even
primarily) to the sheer number of movies and TV shows in which he has featured.
The most pervasive of these is a series
of films starring gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in
the title role. One of the most successful TV
series starred Ron Ely and ran from 1966-1968. Not surprisingly, Disney
made the most popular animated
version in 1999, with a star-studded voice cast and a soundtrack
by Phil Collins.
So if
history is any indication, both of these movies are sure to be quite popular,
and patrons will be looking for related material (and, as always, you can
search on our website for even more). Let us know which one you’ll be seeing
when it’s released, and stay tuned in the coming months for DVD and Blu-ray
release date information on these exciting new movies.
Written by Jon Williams
When you see a photo of writer Joe Hill, it’s easy to note
the resemblance he bears to another novelist famous in the horror genre. It’s
no secret now that Stephen
King is Joe’s father, but that wasn’t always the case. When he was starting
out, Joe wanted to make sure any success he achieved was on the merits of his
work rather than as a result of a famous name, particularly as he knew his work
would be in a similar orbit, genre-wise. Therefore, he dropped the last name of
“King” and shortened his middle name (Hillstrom) to create his pseudonym.
A fact like that can only remain a secret for so long,
though (a fact King learned himself with his own pen name, Richard
Bachman). The news of Hill’s parentage broke around the same time his first
novel was published in 2007. That novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is a seriously
creepy story of aging rock star Judas Coyne, who buys a dead man’s suit—and the
ghost that comes with it—over the Internet. The novel won both the Locus and
Bram Stoker Awards for Best First Novel, proving definitively that Hill’s work
was capable of standing on its own under any name he chose.
His second novel came three years later, in 2010. Horns is a haunting, tragic love
story of a young man accused of his girlfriend’s murder, and the bizarre
transformation his rage brings upon him. It has since been adapted into a
film starring Daniel Radcliffe as the man in question, Ignatius Perrish. Hill’s
third novel, and most widely acclaimed so far, NOS4A2 (a vanity plate spelling of Nosferatu) came out in 2013, about a
woman desperate to save her son from the clutches of a soul vampire.
While these gaps between books may seem abnormally long for
a popular novelist, the multitalented Hill is far from idle during those times.
Starting in 2008, he teamed up with artist Gabriel Rodriguez for Locke & Key, a dark fantasy comics series revolving around
an old house and the mysterious, powerful keys that open the doors there. The
last issue was published in 2013, and in 2015, it was adapted into a full-cast
audio drama, and recently it was announced that a second attempt will be
made to develop it into a television series as well. In 2013-14, Hill wrote the
comics miniseries Wraith, which ties
into NOS4A2 but also works as a
standalone. Additionally, his short story
“The Cape” was
adapted into a comic by Jason Ciaramella.
And now comes Hill’s fourth novel, The
Fireman, published earlier this week. In it, the world has been
decimated by a spore that causes people’s skin to break out in markings known
as Dragonscale…until they eventually spontaneously combust. Into this world
steps a man known as the Fireman, who has learned not only to manage the
condition, but to use it. With this novel, Hill fully embraces his heritage,
calling to mind the post-apocalyptic world his dad brought to the page in The
Stand. Of course, that’s not to suggest that he’s rejected that
heritage before—the two of them have fun with it, and have actually
collaborated. Throttle
is a tribute to classic horror writer Richard Matheson, while In
the Tall Grass is an original novella the two wrote together.
The Fireman has
drawn rave reviews, and will no doubt be one of the hits of the summer. Make
sure you have plenty of copies for your patrons, as well as his past work for
those who have yet to discover this relatively new talent.
Written by Jon Williams
Captain America: Civil
War landed in theatres last Friday and dominated the box office, and it
looks to do the same this weekend. It tells the story of an ideological rift in
the superhero team that leads to conflict between Captain America and Iron Man,
as well as their various allies. It’s the latest installment in Marvel’s
cinematic universe that dates back to 2008. In the eight years since, there
have been a number of films and TV shows that have contributed to this
universe, with plenty more on the horizon, and it can be difficult to keep up
with everything that’s out here. With that in mind, here’s a look at what you
need to know about this ultra-popular series.
The whole shebang began in 2008 with Iron Man, in which Robert Downey Jr.
plays billionaire playboy and technological genius Tony Stark, who fashions a
powered armor suit for himself after being abducted by terrorists. Shortly
thereafter came The Incredible Hulk, with Edward
Norton in the role of Dr. Bruce Banner and his rage-fueled alter ego. Iron Man 2 was the first sequel in
2010. Then, in 2011, two new superheroes were introduced: Thor starred Chris Hemsworth as the
god of thunder, and Captain America: The First Avenger
told the WWII-era origin story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and brought him
into the modern day. In 2012, Marvel brought Phase One of their cinematic
universe to a close by assembling all these heroes (plus a couple of others,
and replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk) into an unstoppable
fighting force known as The Avengers.
Phase Two began with movies featuring three of the
individual avengers: Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World in 2013 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier
in 2014. That year also saw the introduction of a new team, more aliens and
misfits than superheroes: Guardians of the Galaxy was popular
almost as much for its classic rock soundtrack as for its fun and action-packed
plot. In 2015, the Avengers came together once again for Age of Ultron; then, for the first
time in Phase Two, another individual superhero made his entrance in the form
of Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man.
Captain America: Civil
War, which is the first film in Phase Three, actually seems much more like
an Avengers movie. While the Hulk and Thor are absent, the other members of the
team, including War Machine (Don Cheadle), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), all play prominent roles. In
addition, it also provides an origin for a new Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who
will be rebooted into this Marvel universe with Homecoming in 2017, and introduces Black Panther (Chadwick
Boseman), who gets an individual movie in 2018. Next on Marvel’s docket is Doctor Strange, starring Benedict
Cumberbatch, which releases in November; other films to look forward to include
a second Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and a
two-part Avengers Infinity War (2018
and 2019).
And of course, those are just the movies; the MCU has spread
to the small screen as well. It started in 2013 with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which airs
its two-hour Season 3 finale next Tuesday. Starring Clark Gregg as Agent Phil
Coulson, it deals with the government agency tasked with countering enemies
like Hydra that pose monumental threats to humanity. In early 2015, it was
joined on the airwaves by Agent Carter,
in which Hayley Atwell plays Peggy Carter, a secret agent in the 1940s who
works often with Howard Stark (Iron Man’s father) and played a large role in
Captain America’s back story. Daredevil
(starring Charlie Cox as a blind crime-fighter) and Jessica Jones (starring Krysten Ritter as a traumatized former
superhero who now runs a detective agency) both debuted in 2015 as well. All
those shows are ongoing (with the exception of Agent Carter, which will not continue past its second season), and
Marvel has plenty more in the offing. Luke
Cage (Mike Colter) will premiere at the end of September, and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) is filming now. A
bit further down the line, once those two series have begun, the TV superheroes
will get their own team-up in the form of The
Defenders, currently slated for sometime in 2017.
(Please note: Daredevil
and Jessica Jones are not yet
available in a physical format. Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. (beyond the first season) and Agent Carter are currently unavailable to us, but are expected to
become available at some point. We’ll keep you posted.)
The box office numbers for Captain America: Civil War show that the popularity of Marvel and
its characters and stories continues unabated. As their universe grows, make
sure you have these movies and shows on your shelves for fans who want to
relive them and for new converts who want to catch up.
Written by Jon Williams
I was dreaming when I wrote this; forgive me if it goes astray.
Last week we
received yet another stark reminder that 2016 has been a terrible year in terms
of losing beloved entertainers far too soon. When news started coming through
on Thursday that Prince had died at age 57, it seemed like it had to be a hoax;
when that news was confirmed not long after, it seemed like a bad dream.
Born in 1958
in his beloved Minneapolis as the son of two musicians, Prince showed an early
aptitude for music. He parlayed that into a recording contract with Warner
Bros., and his first album, For You, was released two months before his 20th birthday.
Displaying the full range of his talent, he wrote all the songs on the album,
played all the instruments, and even produced it himself. It was with his
second album, 1979’s Prince, that he started to garner
the type of attention that would follow him for the rest of his life. It was
his first platinum album. The albums Dirty Mind (1980) and Controversy (1981) landed him his
first appearance on Saturday Night Live
and an opening spot for the Rolling Stones, as well as his own first headlining
tour.
Then came
the period that transformed Prince from a talented and popular musician into a
legend. The album 1999, released in late in 1982,
contained the party anthem title track, as well as the hit “Little Red
Corvette,” and achieved multi-platinum sales status. Then, in 1984, Prince
starred in the semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain. The film itself was
only a minor hit; the resulting
soundtrack, on the other hand, became one of best albums of the decade and,
perhaps, of all time. Mixing pop and rock sensibilities, it contained the
classics “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry” in addition to the title track.
He would go on to release four more albums in the ‘80s, as well as the soundtrack
to the blockbuster Batman movie starring Michael
Keaton.
Because of
his immense success during this period, Prince will always be associated
primarily with the music of the 1980s, but he wasn’t done with movies, either.
In 1986 he made his directorial debut with Under the Cherry Moon, and in 1987
he put out a concert film to accompany his album Sign o’ the Times. His final film
role was in 1990’s Graffiti Bridge, a sequel to Purple Rain. And of course, he continued
to put out thought-provoking, envelope-pushing music. He released twelve albums
in the ‘90s, including nine after he changed his name to a symbol and could
only be referred to as “the artist formerly known as Prince.” He went back to
being Prince in 2000, and followed that up with twelve more albums from
2001-2010. There was a break in album releases after that point, which came to
an end with two albums released simultaneously in 2014: Plectrumelectrum, with the backing
band 3rdeyegirl, and the solo effort Art Official Age. Then last year
came HITnRUN Phase One; the follow-up, HITnRUN Phase Two, is available on
CD starting tomorrow.
Obviously,
an artist as dynamic and prolific as Prince can’t be adequately summarized in a
post like this. The best thing for patrons who aren’t familiar with his music,
or just know the hits, would be to check it out for themselves, to discover his
talent and why he had so much influence on a generation of musicians. See our
website to put his CDs and movies (as well as a
biography) on your shelves. If your library is like most, there’s probably
quite a high demand for his music right now, with a long list of holds for his
albums. Be sure to let your patrons know, if you participate in hoopla, that
many of his albums and
compilations are available there. hoopla is one of the only services to
offer his music for streaming, and it’s available to patrons immediately, with
no holds.
Written by Jon Williams
Rumours have been swirling for quite some time, but the news
finally became official earlier this week. Harrison Ford will once again don
the fedora and brandish the whip as Indiana Jones for the fifth film in the
series, set to hit theatres in 2019. Steven
Spielberg is back to direct, but George
Lucas, who shaped the stories of the first four installments, will not be
involved.
Ford’s portrayal of the adventurous archaeologist dates back
to 1981’s Raiders
of the Lost Ark, in which he must prevent the Nazis from seizing and
using the Ark of the Covenant to achieve world domination. It was followed in
1984 by Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom, which was actually set before the first film,
and the level of violence contributed to the creation of the PG13 rating in the U.S. by the
MPAA that same year. The third film, Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade, came in 1989, and featured the addition of Sean
Connery to the cast as Indy’s father.
After The Last Crusade,
there was a nineteen-year break before the fourth film. Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull moves the series ahead from
the 1930s to 1957 and replaces the Nazis with the Soviets as antagonists. It
seemed as though that movie was a chance for Ford and Jones to pass the torch to
Shia
LaBeouf and continue the series with a younger lead, but apparently that
was not the case. LaBeouf is unlikely to return for the new film, although it
is a possibility.
Of course, fans who were “jonesing” for more Indy didn’t
have to wait out that whole nineteen-year period without a fix. The
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a television series that ran for two
seasons starting in 1992, and then was revived for four TV movies from
1994-1996. (Please note: for the DVD release, the movies were edited into
episodes, and the episodes from both seasons and the movies appear
chronologically by when they were set, rather than in the order they originally
aired.)
By the time the next film releases in 2009, that will be an
eleven-year gap between movies, and Ford will be 77 years old. Of course, he’s
certainly no stranger to reprising iconic roles after many years away. Star
Wars: The Force Awakens, one of the biggest blockbusters of all time,
starred Ford in a central role as Han Solo, a character he hadn’t played since Return
of the Jedi in 1983. Also, coming in 2018, Ford will appear as
replicant/hunter Rick Deckard in the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade
Runner, directed by Ridley
Scott and based on a novel
by Philip K. Dick.
Ford has been a big name in Hollywood ever since his first
starring role in the original Star Wars
in 1977. Over the course of his long career he’s put together a very impressive
filmography. So, are there any other characters you’d like to see him
resurrect? A return to Jack
Ryan, perhaps? Let us know in the comments section below, or tell us about
favourite Ford movies or fun Indy memories.
Written by Jon Williams
The Academy
Awards, honouring the year’s best movies and performances, were handed out last
Sunday night. As the ceremony wound toward its conclusion and the most
high-profile awards started being given away, you could feel the anticipation
building. Would this finally be the year that Leonardo diCaprio, widely
considered one of the biggest talents in cinema today, finally walked away with
a coveted acting award with this, his fifth nomination?
It was. When Julianne Moore read out his name as the
year’s Best Actor, a wave of jubilation swept through the actor’s fans all
across the country and around the world. He won for his role in The
Revenant, a gritty portrayal of a man left for dead in the wilderness
of the American frontier. The film itself was up for a whopping total of twelve
Academy Awards, winning three—aside from Best Actor, it also won for Best
Cinematography and Best Director for Alejandro G. I ñárritu (who won the same award last year for Birdman).
The film is based on a historical novel
of the same name by Michael Punke, whose position within the U.S.
government prevents him from even talking
about his book.
DiCaprio has
been in the acting game for a long time. He got his start in 1990 at the age of
15 in the short-lived TV series Parenthood, based on the Steve Martin movie
of the year before. He also appeared in an episode of Roseanne,
and had a recurring role on Growing
Pains. He was working his way into film around the same time, getting
his break in 1993’s This
Boy’s Life (which was also the film debut of Tobey
Maguire). Then, later that year, he played the role of Arnie in What’s
Eating Gilbert Grape, earning his first Oscar nomination for Best
Supporting Actor (losing out to Tommy Lee Jones for The
Fugitive).
His star
would only rise from there as he would go on to participate in a number of
high-profile projects. In 1996 he headlined (alongside Claire
Danes) Baz Luhrmann’s modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo
+ Juliet. The following year came perhaps his best-known role, as Jack
Dawson in James Cameron’s Titanic.
The tale of doomed romance between DiCaprio and Kate Winslet propelled Titanic to a new all-time box office
record at the time. From there he went on to work with such famous names as
Woody Allen (Celebrity), Martin
Scorsese (Gangs
of New York), and Steven Spielberg (Catch Me
if You Can).
In 2005,
eleven years after his first nomination, DiCaprio finally scored a second Oscar
nomination, this time for Best Actor, for another Scorsese-helmed feature: The
Aviator, a biopic of the eccentric genius Howard Hughes. This time he
lost to Jamie Foxx for Ray.
He wouldn’t have to wait as long for the next one, as he was nominated again in
2007 for Blood
Diamond—that award went to Forest Whitaker for The
Last King of Scotland. He wasn’t nominated again until 2014, when he
was recognized for The
Wolf of Wall Street, and the award went to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas
Buyers Club.
And all this
is to say nothing of the incredible roles he played that weren’t nominated by
the Academy. Leonardo DiCaprio has had quite a varied and interesting acting
career, and at just 41, it’s safe to say that moviegoers still have quite a lot
to look forward to. SmartBrowse his name on our website for more of his movies,
and while you’re there, don’t miss our collection of all this year’s other Academy
Award winners.
Written by Jon Williams
The Grammy
Awards ceremony on Monday night produced some incredible musical moments. From Taylor
Swift’s opening number to Kendrick
Lamar’s fiery performance (literally), the taste of Broadway’s Hamilton,
Little
Big Town’s haunting rendition of their hit “Girl Crush,” and more, there
was something for fans all across the spectrum to enjoy. And then there were
the tributes—the Eagles
taking the stage with Jackson
Browne to perform “Take It Easy” in honour of Glenn
Frey, and Lady
Gaga’s medley of David
Bowie hits.
One of the
more unexpected moments came late in the show when Alice Cooper took the stage
with a band of familiar faces. Introduced by Dave Grohl of the Foo
Fighters, they first played an original song, then faded it into a cover of
“Ace of Spades” in tribute to Motorhead’s
Lemmy Kilmister. They did so with a brand of straightforward rock sound that
was absent from the rest of the show and, indeed, has seemingly gone missing
from the music world’s consciousness as other forms of pop music have come to
the forefront.
The band is
called the Hollywood Vampires, and this wasn’t just a one-off performance. A
tribute in themselves to Cooper’s famous drinking buddies of the ‘70s, they
formed in 2015 with principal members Joe Perry and Johnny Depp joining the
singer. Their debut
album featured contributions from such luminaries as Grohl,
Joe
Walsh, Sir
Paul McCartney, and the late Christopher
Lee. And while not technically full members of the band, they’ve frequently
been joined, as they were on Monday night, by Guns
N’ Roses associates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum.
And of
course, to score such an incredible list of collaborators, the supergroup’s
actual members are pretty famous in their own right. Alice
Cooper, of course, just finished up a supporting stint on Motley
Crue’s final tour. He’s been at the forefront of the rock n’ roll business
for decades. The same can be said of Joe
Perry, lead guitarist for Aerosmith
since 1970. The third member is something of a surprise, as Johnny
Depp is known for his acting career, but it turns out he has some serious
musical chops as well.
The
Hollywood Vampires only have one album for now, but Cooper recently reported
that he’s working on a follow-up, as well as perhaps a live album, as the band
gets ready for its summer concert schedule. Make sure you have it on your
shelves, as well as music from the band’s members, collaborators, and other
similar acts to satisfy your rock-loving patrons as this style of music tries
to regain its foothold in popular culture.
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