tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-602134753862022090.post110268477028649552..comments2023-11-02T05:27:22.304-07:00Comments on Peace, Love and Movies: I'm outta hereWoodstock 2007http://www.blogger.com/profile/10689143901216617069noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-602134753862022090.post-67684578060746357402008-10-04T18:50:00.000-07:002008-10-04T18:50:00.000-07:00JohnShhhhh. FYIdanny in Taiwanre:Ang Lee's new mov...John<BR/><BR/>Shhhhh. FYI<BR/><BR/>danny in Taiwan<BR/><BR/>re:<BR/><BR/>Ang Lee's new movie "Taking Woodstock" has backstory of pure serendipity<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>cooment from Danny Bloom<BR/>comment person in Taiwan, SMILE!<BR/>email me for details:<BR/>danbloom AT gmail<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Taiwan-born Hollywood director Ang Lee, 53, is tackling a new movie<BR/>project, a comedy this time, about America's<BR/><BR/>famous Woodstock hippie music festival in 1969. Titled Taking<BR/>Woodstock, the film's screenplay was written by<BR/><BR/>longtime Lee collaborator James Schamus, 49, from a book by Elliot<BR/>Tiber with the same title.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Tiber's memoir was quietly published with little fanfare in 2007 by a<BR/>small publisher in New York, but now the book,<BR/>subtitled "A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life," has become<BR/>Lee's entree into the world of film comedy. It's<BR/><BR/>tentatively set for a premiere in New York on June 26, 2009 --<BR/>according to sources and several movie websites on the Internet --<BR/>around the time of the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock<BR/>festival. The three-day concert took place in the middle of August of<BR/>that year, beginning on August 15.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Rudy Shur is the president of Square One Publishers, a book company in<BR/>New York, which bought the book and<BR/><BR/>released it in 2007 without really knowing if there was a Hollywood movie in<BR/>it. But ten months after publication, a<BR/>movie deal was signed with Focus Features in New York. Focus Features<BR/>is owned by NBC Universal, with James<BR/><BR/>Schamus serving as the independent studio's CEO. Tongues are already<BR/>wagging on blogs and websites about what Lee's<BR/><BR/>take on the Woodstock era will be like. The principal location<BR/>shooting in upstate New York is set to be completed<BR/>by the end of this month, according to Variety magazine, a film<BR/>industry publication.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>In a recent email interview about how the book and movie sale came<BR/>about, publisher Shur, 62, explained the book's<BR/>curious backstory.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"Two friends of mine told me about a man they knew who had a very<BR/>interesting and unique 'story' to tell, and they<BR/>asked me to call him and see for myself if the memoir project -- still<BR/>unwritten -- would make a good book. After<BR/><BR/>talking to Elliot Tiber and listening to his story about Woodstock in<BR/>the Sixties, I told him that it would make a terrific<BR/>book, but that our book company usually didn't publish those types of<BR/>memoirs and that he would be better off with a<BR/>larger publishing house that had more experience and marketing clout."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Despite Shur's advice to take his book project to a bigger publishing<BR/>company, Tiber kept coming back to him and<BR/>Shur finally said that he would take on the book, but with the same<BR/>earlier reservations he had expressed before.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"I decided that maybe it was time to take a chance with this kind of<BR/>book, and since it was my company, well, I<BR/>would do as good a job as I could," Shur added. "So I called Elliot up<BR/>and said 'Lets go for it'."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>The book's genesis was complicated. "The story he wanted to tell was<BR/>basically all Elliot, but to tell it in a manner<BR/><BR/>that presented a balanced story in the way that I was looking for<BR/>meant calling in a co-writer, Tom Monte," Shur said.<BR/><BR/>"Elliot's normal writing style was very creative and<BR/>stream-of-consciousness, but I wanted more of a traditional story<BR/>narrative. I had worked with Monte before, so I signed him to put<BR/>Elliot's material into the style I was looking for.<BR/><BR/>Joanne Abrams, my senior editor, worked with Elliot to get his memoir<BR/>into a more finalized form, and Monte did his<BR/>magic with the book, too. When it was done, Elliot approved, and we<BR/>had our book."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>The title of the book, and the movie, also has an interesting<BR/>backstory. Shur explained that the title was the brainchild<BR/>of Square One's marketing director, Anthony Pomes.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"We had lots of titles in mind, but 'Taking Woodstock' seemed to fit<BR/>best based on the story," Shur noted. "We felt<BR/>the title meant two things: Taking stock of your life and, in a sense,<BR/>control of your destiny -- and also taking the<BR/>experience of Woodstock, and what that cultural event meant, with you<BR/>for the rest of your life."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"Woodstock was a moment of freedom as well as a coming of age for a<BR/>new generation in America," Shur added.<BR/><BR/>"So we used that title for the book, and Lee and Schamus are using it<BR/>for the movie as well. We are delighted."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"<BR/>The book's narrative reflects a young Elliot Tiber in his 20s who was<BR/>on the brink of financial ruin at the time but<BR/>who was also in a position to help pull off one of our generation's<BR/>greatest rock concerts," Shur said. "I wanted to<BR/>include some of the most important, yet overlooked, facts of the<BR/>coming together of the concert, and Monte (Eliot's<BR/><BR/>co-writer), having also lived through the period, was able to do just that."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>When the book was first released, there were only a few reviews since<BR/>Square One was not a large publisher and<BR/>did not have the same kind of marketing clout as the larger book<BR/>companies in New York. But the reviews were<BR/>nevertheless positive, and slowly, word of mouth began to spread on<BR/>the Internet at book websites and blogs.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"We could see a real 'grass-roots' interest starting to build around<BR/>the book," Pomes, the marketing director said.<BR/><BR/>"The audience was growing week by week, and we felt we held a sleeper<BR/>title that had what it took to turn into a<BR/><BR/>winner."<BR/><BR/><BR/>How the book became a Hollywood movie to be directed by Academy Award<BR/>winner Ang Lee is also a story that<BR/><BR/>Shur tells with relish.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"It will sound like a Hollywood myth, but it really happened this<BR/>way," he said. "Tibe<BR/>r was scheduled to appear on<BR/>a West Coast television show to promote the book, and while he was<BR/>waiting in the green room to go on the show, who<BR/><BR/>should sit down next to him, by pure chance, but Ang Lee."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>It turns out that Lee was also scheduled to appear on that same<BR/>interview show to promote his latest film, "Lust, Caution".<BR/><BR/>"Elliot," continues Shur, "introduced himself and spent the next hour<BR/>chatting with him about his book."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"Well, when Lee went on the show, the host finished the interview by<BR/>asking Lee where he usually got his ideas<BR/><BR/>from for his movies, and Lee said that he really doesn't go looking<BR/>for stories, that they seem to come to him. And<BR/><BR/>with that he turned to Elliot, who was sitting across from him, and<BR/>gave him a sly wink."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>"Nothing really happened until about five months later, when Lee had<BR/>finally read the book," Shur said. "Lee<BR/><BR/>and Schamus felt there was a movie here, and together they went to<BR/>upstate New York to visit the Yasgur's Farm<BR/><BR/>site where the Woodstock festival took place. Elliot joined them there<BR/>at the site, and the project was in the can. The agents<BR/><BR/>finalized the deal, everything was signed, and here we are. It looks<BR/>like Lee was right: in this case, the next movie<BR/><BR/>project really did just seem to come to him."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>When asked if he knew there was a movie in the book from the very<BR/>beginning, Shur said: "I'll be honest with you.<BR/>As we worked on the book, I knew that Elliot's story had the potential<BR/>to make a great independent movie. It was<BR/><BR/>like no other Woodstock story ever published. I believed that we could<BR/>find a small independent producer who could<BR/>turn the book into a film. However, in my wildest dreams I would have<BR/>never thought it to be the likes of Ang Lee and<BR/>James Schamus, two Academy Award winners who would take on the<BR/>project. So far, it's been an amazing ride."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>So get ready for Ang Lee's new movie set for release in the summer of<BR/>2009, although the release date is not set<BR/><BR/>in concrete and may change according to the whims of Hollywood's<BR/>scheduling mavens. In the meantime,<BR/>readers who want to get straight to the heart of this unique American<BR/>memoir can grab hold of Tiber's<BR/>book, available in bookstores and on Internet ordering sites<BR/>worldwide. No doubt, however, Lee will have plenty to say himself<BR/>about how Tiber's book<BR/><BR/>came to him, and how he and Schamus collaborated on it as a film<BR/>comedy. For now, though, Rudy Shur has<BR/><BR/>told the story his way.DANIELBLOOMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05130493903696077379noreply@blogger.com