“Lord of the Dance” star Michael Flatley is set to be the subject of a new in-depth feature documentary titled “The Billion Dollar Dancer.”
Following Flatley’s life and career from his humble beginnings as the son of Irish immigrants in Chicago to becoming one of the world’s most famous dancers, it will cover everything from bullying to boxing — plus his love of fast cars and his battle with cancer — through archive footage and interviews with the dancing sensation himself.
The doc, which is set to be directed by Ryan Suffern (“Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story”), will also follow Flatley in the present as he launches a new show and oversees the 25th anniversary of “Lord of the Dance,” the Irish dancing spectacle that brought him to global attention.
Flatley first found himself in the public eye after creating “Riverdance,” which debuted during the intermission of the Eurovision...
Following Flatley’s life and career from his humble beginnings as the son of Irish immigrants in Chicago to becoming one of the world’s most famous dancers, it will cover everything from bullying to boxing — plus his love of fast cars and his battle with cancer — through archive footage and interviews with the dancing sensation himself.
The doc, which is set to be directed by Ryan Suffern (“Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story”), will also follow Flatley in the present as he launches a new show and oversees the 25th anniversary of “Lord of the Dance,” the Irish dancing spectacle that brought him to global attention.
Flatley first found himself in the public eye after creating “Riverdance,” which debuted during the intermission of the Eurovision...
- 9/26/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
The Grammys aren’t the Grammys without surprises, and this year definitely didn’t disappoint on that front. Here are five categories that shocked us all on Sunday night.
Song of the Year
Undoubtedly the biggest surprise at the Grammys was Bonnie Raitt taking home Song of the Year for “Just Like That.” Raitt is no stranger to a Grammy win, having racked up 13 competitive Grammys across her long career. However, while many expected her to lose this award to a more contemporary name — perhaps Adele or Harry Styles — Raitt probably monopolized the country and Americana vote, as well as being a likely rock-voter pick (she’s a past winner in that genre). With that in mind, and considering the older voters who likely love Raitt as well, her win isn’t inexplicable. And good for Raitt, who’s the first sole-lyricist winner of the award since Amy Winehouse (“Rehab...
Song of the Year
Undoubtedly the biggest surprise at the Grammys was Bonnie Raitt taking home Song of the Year for “Just Like That.” Raitt is no stranger to a Grammy win, having racked up 13 competitive Grammys across her long career. However, while many expected her to lose this award to a more contemporary name — perhaps Adele or Harry Styles — Raitt probably monopolized the country and Americana vote, as well as being a likely rock-voter pick (she’s a past winner in that genre). With that in mind, and considering the older voters who likely love Raitt as well, her win isn’t inexplicable. And good for Raitt, who’s the first sole-lyricist winner of the award since Amy Winehouse (“Rehab...
- 2/7/2023
- by Jaime Rodriguez
- Gold Derby
Only a couple of days into June and the movies are bombarding us with some nifty vacation options. Let’s see, we just took a wild funny trek to Fire Island in the northeastern part of the country, so where “to” now virtually? Well, the last one was a scripted twist on the “rom-com”, so how about a non-fiction flick? Yes, a documentary feature (now don’t you whine and cry “Homework?!”), but it’s also a concert overview. In fact, it’s a toe-tapping delight, much in the vein of last year’s Oscar-winner (and crowd-pleaser) Summer Of Soul. We’re still in the good ole’ US of A, but a lot further south and a bit west. And though this on-the-bayou burg is known usually for one type of tune, this film looks at an annual event that’s a celebration of all things musical from all around the world.
- 6/3/2022
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This review of “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” was first published March 13, 2022, after premiering at the SXSW Film Festival.
Anybody who’s been to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival could tell you that the hardest part of making a movie about the annual event, which takes up two weekends in late April and early May in the Crescent City, would have to be fitting it all in.
Jazz Fest, after all, showcases 7,000 musicians on 14 stages over eight days in a city whose homegrown music is a gumbo made up of every style and sound that came up through the Gulf of Mexico, down the Mississippi River or through the delta to the east and the swamps to the west of the city. The festival is gloriously overwhelming, an embarrassment of riches that forces you to pick and choose and be open to surprises any time the wind changes...
Anybody who’s been to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival could tell you that the hardest part of making a movie about the annual event, which takes up two weekends in late April and early May in the Crescent City, would have to be fitting it all in.
Jazz Fest, after all, showcases 7,000 musicians on 14 stages over eight days in a city whose homegrown music is a gumbo made up of every style and sound that came up through the Gulf of Mexico, down the Mississippi River or through the delta to the east and the swamps to the west of the city. The festival is gloriously overwhelming, an embarrassment of riches that forces you to pick and choose and be open to surprises any time the wind changes...
- 5/13/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
If you’ve noticed a lot of music documentaries hitting your favorite platforms, that groundswell is driven by record companies like Universal Music Group looking for ways to invigorate their catalogues. So it makes perfect sense that a musician’s son like Hollywood super-producer Frank Marshall — who has long been Hollywood’s fave party DJ, worked on Martin Scorsese’s The Band documentary “The Last Waltz,” and plays a mean guitar — would move into the space.
Marshall has directed a few features over the years and started producing non-fiction series and features before moving into directing with “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” and “Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name.”
There’s no question Marshall can afford to do whatever he wants with his time. He still devotes his day job to shepherding the latest “Jurassic World” and “Indiana Jones” sequels, and feeds...
Marshall has directed a few features over the years and started producing non-fiction series and features before moving into directing with “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” and “Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name.”
There’s no question Marshall can afford to do whatever he wants with his time. He still devotes his day job to shepherding the latest “Jurassic World” and “Indiana Jones” sequels, and feeds...
- 5/13/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Frank Marshall may be best known for producing films going all the way back to 1973’s “Paper Moon” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “The Sixth Sense,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and five “Jurassic Park” movies. But he’s also directed a few films along the way, including the Emmy-nominated 2020 documentary “The Bees Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”
On Friday, another music doc directed by Marshall opens in theaters. “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” which premiered at this year’s South by Southwest festival, opens only a few days after the conclusion of the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in three years, after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the historic and long-running festival in 2020 and 2021.
Marshall talked to TheWrap about “Jazz Fest” and about his interest in music films during rehearsals for a cruise-ship musical based on Jimmy Buffett...
On Friday, another music doc directed by Marshall opens in theaters. “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” which premiered at this year’s South by Southwest festival, opens only a few days after the conclusion of the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in three years, after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the historic and long-running festival in 2020 and 2021.
Marshall talked to TheWrap about “Jazz Fest” and about his interest in music films during rehearsals for a cruise-ship musical based on Jimmy Buffett...
- 5/12/2022
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
This upcoming weekend, Marvel Studios’ latest superhero epic, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” will continue to run rampant at the box office, and it’s likely to be the #1 movie for quite some time, or at least until “Top Gun: Maverick” opens over Memorial Day weekend.
On Friday, Universal Pictures is releasing Blumhouse Pictures’ take on Stephen King’s best-selling thriller “Firestarter,” but it’s not just opening in roughly 3,300 theaters – it will also get a day-and-date release on its Peacock streaming service. The new movie stars Ryan Kiera Armstrong from “American Horror Story” as young Charlie McGee, the titular girl with pyrokinetic powers, while Zac Efron plays her father. It’s directed by Keith Thomas, who helmed the previous Blumhouse movie, “The Vigil.”
The decision for Universal to do day-and-date streaming is an odd one, just because there isn’t much direct competition other than “Doctor Strange.
On Friday, Universal Pictures is releasing Blumhouse Pictures’ take on Stephen King’s best-selling thriller “Firestarter,” but it’s not just opening in roughly 3,300 theaters – it will also get a day-and-date release on its Peacock streaming service. The new movie stars Ryan Kiera Armstrong from “American Horror Story” as young Charlie McGee, the titular girl with pyrokinetic powers, while Zac Efron plays her father. It’s directed by Keith Thomas, who helmed the previous Blumhouse movie, “The Vigil.”
The decision for Universal to do day-and-date streaming is an odd one, just because there isn’t much direct competition other than “Doctor Strange.
- 5/11/2022
- by Edward Douglas
- Gold Derby
“I see nothing happening on a major scale to try to get the older audiences back to theaters,” griped Sony Pictures Classics’ co-president Tom Bernard.
Ideally, Bernard wants NATO to trumpet cinema safety in a big public campaign. (A NATO rep says not in the cards.) He’d like that campaign alongside a creative marketing push by independent movie chains, combined with a steadier flow of specialty films with wider appeal. That could include SPC’s upcoming The Duke, Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story and The Phantom of the Open.
Focus Features’ bellwether Downton Abby: A New Era is the big test. If the Crawley family can’t rout lingering Covid jitters and force of habit to nudge older demos off home screens, then nothing can.
Hoping to prime the pump for this potential spring rebound, SPC and the Angelika Film Center this week unveiled “Bring A Friend Back To The Movies,...
Ideally, Bernard wants NATO to trumpet cinema safety in a big public campaign. (A NATO rep says not in the cards.) He’d like that campaign alongside a creative marketing push by independent movie chains, combined with a steadier flow of specialty films with wider appeal. That could include SPC’s upcoming The Duke, Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story and The Phantom of the Open.
Focus Features’ bellwether Downton Abby: A New Era is the big test. If the Crawley family can’t rout lingering Covid jitters and force of habit to nudge older demos off home screens, then nothing can.
Hoping to prime the pump for this potential spring rebound, SPC and the Angelika Film Center this week unveiled “Bring A Friend Back To The Movies,...
- 4/15/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
No American city is as steeped in native musical lore and legacy as is New Orleans and you get a good feeling for how that came about in Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story. It’s a documentary overflowing with performers and music that still barely begins to scratch the surface of what’s gone on musically for ages in the fabled, oft-distressed city. Music fans of assorted persuasions will be delighted with the samples served up here, although the subject is so vast and varied that something like a six or ten-hour miniseries would be required to begin to do it justice. With Sony Pictures Classics handling the U.S. release starting May 13 after it SXSW bow, the film is certain to get a nice lift-off and extensive exposure on home tubes is assured.
“Life is happening at a high frequency” when the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place,...
“Life is happening at a high frequency” when the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that its feature documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, co-directed by five-time Oscar nominee Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Ryan Suffern (Mr. A & Mr. M: The Story of A&m Records), will hit theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 13, before expanding to additional markets in the following weeks. It will open against IFC Films’ horror-thriller The Innocents, Roadside Attractions’ comedy Family Camp and Universal’s horror-thriller Firestarter starring Zac Efron and more.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell, aka “Jazz Fest,” is the signature annual music and cultural event of the city and has been called America’s greatest festival. It has celebrated the music, food, arts and crafts of all of Louisiana since 1970, with hundreds of thousands attending the event each year. The documentary weaves together live performances and...
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell, aka “Jazz Fest,” is the signature annual music and cultural event of the city and has been called America’s greatest festival. It has celebrated the music, food, arts and crafts of all of Louisiana since 1970, with hundreds of thousands attending the event each year. The documentary weaves together live performances and...
- 3/15/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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