Categories
Television

So excited for this!!!

Judd Apatow doc takes deep dive into Garry Shandling’s life

Comedian Garry Shandling’s untimely death, in March 2016, extinguished the brilliant creative mind behind groundbreaking TV classics “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

Shandling’s passing, at the too-young age of 66 (from a pulmonary thrombosis), left a complicated legacy: he was embracing yet distant, philosophical yet cutting, gregarious yet extremely private.

Few people felt they really knew what made him tick.

“There were aspects of his life he was struggling with, and part of working on this documentary was trying to figure that out,” says noted comedy writer/producer/director Judd Apatow, who takes a deep dive into his mentor’s life in HBO’s “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling,” airing over two nights (Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m.). “Zen” uses Shandling’s personal journals, home movies, audiotapes and recollections from Jim Carrey, Jay Leno, Sarah Silverman, David Duchovny, Kevin Nealon and ex-girlfriend Linda Doucett — among many others — to map the arc of the comedian’s life.

“All Garry cared about was honesty and the truth,” says Apatow. “ ‘Here’s my life, my struggles, here’s how I dealt with it, how I tried to evolve as a person.’”

Apatow grew close to Shandling while working on “The Larry Sanders Show,” HBO’s satiric comedy series about a neurotic, insecure late-night talk show host (played by Shandling) that ran for six seasons (1992-98), won a slew of awards and established the cringe-worthy comedy template for, among others, Ricky Gervais’ BBC series “The Office.”

“I felt that as close as I was to Garry, there was more to know that he hadn’t shared with me,” Apatow says. “He was always very sweet and giving but was also distracted and consumed, and you knew there were other things on his mind.”

Shandling’s diaries, spanning from 1977 to his death, provide a valuable peek into the comic’s complex psyche. “It’s so rare that you know exactly what somebody was thinking during most of the important moments of their life. It’s a real blessing when you can have that type of insight,” Apatow says of the journals, which came to light when Shandling was going to share them in another project that never came to fruition. “We realized that Garry was up for revealing parts of his journals,” says Apatow. “So I took that as sort of permission to use them in the documentary.”

The journals also reveal Shandling’s lifelong battle with finding closure over the passing of his beloved older brother, Barry, who died (from cystic fibrosis) when Garry was 10. Shandling’s parents, Irving and Muriel, rarely talked about Barry thereafter and kept Garry away from his funeral. Apatow unearthed a clip of the Shandlings being interviewed about Garry, when the subject turns to Barry.

“In that footage you see his mom refusing to talk about [Barry] passing away and the effect it had on Garry,” says Apatow. “And you realize, ‘Oh, she did that to Garry his entire childhood,’ so he was never able to work through that grief at a very important time in his youth. I do think it led him to being obsessed with the truth and presence and love, because at an important time of his life he didn’t get that the way he needed it.”

Apatow says he decided to make the documentary after Shandling’s memorial service. “When people spoke at the memorial they were so funny and insightful and his life added up to a very inspirational message,” he says. “People left and felt like they’d been through a religious experience.

“A lot of us were sad we didn’t know more [about Garry] and maybe we weren’t there for him or understand him as much as we would’ve liked to,” he says. “I feel Garry would like his life to be a lesson to other people, to help people. All he wanted was to use his pain and try to spread a very simple message, which is that we shouldn’t be all about egos — we should care more about connecting and loving other people.”

Categories
Bruuuuuuuuce!!

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please let me get a code to get a ticket this time!!

Here’s Why Bruce Springsteen Decided to Extend His Broadway Run

Forget Vegas. Bruce Springsteen may have found a new home for big musical acts.

The Boss has announced a third extension to his perennially sold out Springsteen on Broadway show, which will keep him playing the Manhattan gig through Dec. 15, 2018.

What’s the appeal of Broadway vs. a stadium tour, though? For Springsteen, it could come down to a few factors.

Springsteen’s The River anniversary tour in 2016 was the year’s top grossing concert, bringing in $268.3 million, according to Pollstar. Springsteen on Broadway, meanwhile, has had box office receipts of $44 million during its five-month run.

But the Broadway show has considerably lower expenses. There’s no band to pay, nor roadies or hotel bills, or any of the other costs of traveling around the country. And even by Broadway standards, it’s a cheap show, since there’s no supporting cast and a small crew required to run it. The profit margins are significantly higher.

Springsteen plays five shows a week. The rest of the time, he can skip hotel life and head home to his equestrian ranch in Colts Neck, N.J., roughly an hour from the theater. That’s appealing for anyone, especially a 68 year old.

Tickets for Springsteen on Broadway have been red hot from the moment they went on sale—and Springsteen hates to leave fans disappointed. The only people who will have a chance to pick up seats to these extra shows will be those who had earlier registered to buy, but weren’t able to get them. (Well, and people willing to pay outrageous amounts to scalpers.) Springsteen says this will be the final extension of the show.

Categories
Star Wars

Very cool.

How Solo: A Star Wars Story Is Crediting Phil Lord and Chris Miller

In Hollywood, it’s not uncommon for a director to leave a movie before production begins, but rarely does it happen in the middle of when the cameras are rolling. Alas, that’s what went down last summer with Solo: A Star Wars Story, as Phil Lord and Chris Miller exited the movie due to creative differences with Lucasfilm. With Ron Howard being quickly brought aboard to assume directing duties, the question arose of how Lord and Miller could be credited when the movie finally arrived. Now we have the answer: they’re being labeled as executive producers. Miller said:

“We were really proud of the many contributions we made to that film. In light of the creative differences, we elected to take an executive producer credit.”

Phil Lord and Chris Miller revealed their new status on Solo: A Star Wars Story while speaking at the third annual GLAS Animation Festival Friday (via Variety). Lord and Miller first boarded the Han Solo movie back in July 2015, and by the time they departed the spinoff movie two years later, approximately 75% of the movie had been shot. While Ron Howard subsequently added his own unique touches to Solo: A Star Wars Story during the remaining weeks of principal photography and the extended reshoots (like reworking the Dryden Vos character), Lord and Miller’s fingerprints are still all over the movie, so them being credited as executive producers seems more than fair.

Publicly, Phil Lord and Chris Miller attributed their departure from Solo: A Star Wars Story to simply wanting to make a different movie than what Lucasfilm had hired them to make. However, shortly after the news of their exit first came out, it was reported that among the issues that popped up during their time on Solo: A Star Wars Story included the duo taking an improvisational approach with shooting scenes and butting heads with screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan on the London set. In the end, it just wasn’t a good fit, but at least Lord and Miller are being properly recognized for the work they poured into the project.

Taking place in the early years of the Empire’s reign across a galaxy far, far away, Solo: A Star Wars Story follows Han Solo making a name for himself in the seedy galactic underworld, and along the way, he’ll meet Lando Calrissian, obtain the Millennium Falcon pull off a dangerous train heist and more. The main cast includes Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany.

Solo: A Star Wars Story blasts its way into theaters on May 25. As for what else this year has in store for the silver screen (which includes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote and executive produced), you can find release date information on our 2018 premiere guide.