U2 Talk iPod Strategy
Band's partnership with Apple has deep roots
For two weeks before MTV debuted U2's video for the new single "Vertigo," fans had a chance to see the band perform the song on TV -- in an iPod commercial. The members of U2 are passionate proponents of Apple's iPod -- "It's the most interesting art object since the electric guitar in terms of music," says Bono -- but the band's new partnership with Apple Computer still qualifies as a surprise. In their twenty-five-year history, U2 have never licensed their music for commercial use or even accepted tour sponsorship.
With radio playlists strictly formatted and MTV showing more reality-TV shows than videos, many bands are looking for new ways to bring their music to the public. And so U2 launched the first single from their upcoming album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, with an iPod ad rather than a video. Apple is also releasing a special black U2-edition iPod for $349 with band autographs laser-engraved on the casing. Buyers get a fifty-dollar discount on The Complete U2, a $149 iTunes download package that includes more than 400 songs. "I see this as the beginning of a new era in the distribution of music," says U2 guitarist the Edge. "We're happy to be part of history and the future."
The U2-Apple partnership has deep roots. In early 2003, when U2 first heard that Apple was planning to launch an iTunes music store, the band met with Apple founder Steve Jobs at the home of Jimmy Iovine, the co-chairman of U2's label, Interscope Records. "Jimmy is a visionary and believes artists should meet with technologists," says Bono.
iPod ads have been helpful in album sales before, most notably for Jet, whose single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" garnered widespread TV exposure before storming radio. U2 manager Paul McGuinness says, "The commercial was an attractive idea because iTunes was already selling our music, and the amount Apple will spend for airtime is out of reach for the record business." The band accepted no money for the ad but will get royalties on the U2 iPod.
And music execs are eager to see more of these partnerships. In September, the industry held its first-ever "upfront" -- a conference where the major labels showcased upcoming albums for representatives from corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and Mercedes-Benz. "Target your brands with our bands," said Atlantic chairman Jason Flom, showing a video featuring bands on his artist roster that might appeal to baby-boomers (Phil Collins, the Doors) or soccer moms (Matchbox Twenty, the Corrs).
Commercials aren't the only route. Shows including The O.C. and One Tree Hill put music from new bands in every episode. When video-game maker Electronic Arts featured songs from Good Charlotte and Blink-182 in its sports games, it helped to break those bands. "We know there are other avenues to talk to consumers about music and other places to market to them," says Phil Quartararo, executive vice president of EMI Music North America. "Kids hear music on the radio, phone, iPod, video game and the Internet, so we have to go to where the consumers are."
As for U2, it's unclear whether their partnership with iPod will result in significantly increased exposure. After all, the band has already sold more than 120 million records worldwide. "U2 is an established act for radio and video, which is still the main driver," says Quartararo. But some think that the glow from Apple's hot product will reflect well on the band. "Whenever you're the first to do something, there's a hipness factor," says Bob Chiappardi, president of Concrete Marketing, a music-promotion firm. "It's a win-win situation." If it goes well, look for other bands to beg Apple for their own iPods too.
'Incredibles' Rakes in an Amazing $70.7M
LOS ANGELES - "The Incredibles" lived up to their name at the box office as the animated superhero adventure debuted with $70.7 million in its opening weekend, continuing an unbroken string of hits for Pixar Animation.
If numbers hold when final figures are released Monday, "The Incredibles" would have the second-best opening weekend among animated flicks, coming in just ahead of Pixar's 2003 blockbuster "Finding Nemo," which debuted with $70.3 million. "Shrek 2" holds the animated debut record with $108 million.
The horror hit "The Grudge," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, slipped to third with $13.5 million, lifting its total to $89.6 million.
"Ray," starring Jamie Foxx as musician Ray Charles, remained No. 2 for a second straight weekend with $13.8 million. It has grossed $39.8 million in 10 days.
Jude Law's "Alfie," a remake of the 1960s hit about an incorrigible womanizer, debuted weakly with $6.5 million, coming in at No. 5.
Despite the big opening for "The Incredibles," overall Hollywood revenues fell, continuing a box-office slump that has lingered for most of the autumn. The top 12 movies took in $136.1 million, down 5 percent from the same weekend last year, when both "The Matrix Revolutions" and "Elf" opened.
Playing in 3,933 theaters, "The Incredibles" averaged a whopping $17,971 per theater, compared to an average of $2,935 in 2,215 theaters for "Alfie."
Featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee, "The Incredibles" tells the story of a family of superheroes pressed back into action years after they had been forced underground as ordinary suburbanites.
The film drew a mainly family audience, though teenagers and adults without children accounted for about one-third of the crowd, according to distributor Disney.
With stellar reviews, "The Incredibles" maintained the perfect critical and commercial record for Pixar, whose previous hits were "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc.," "A Bug's Life" and the "Toy Story" movies.
"It's more important to have a great story and then to use the technology to bring it to life, and they have never lost sight of that," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which has released the Pixar movies. "They deliver absolutely the best story first and meld it with the most unbelievable technology out there."
Disney's deal with Pixar expires after next November's release of "Cars." Negotiations to extend the deal fell apart earlier this year, though there has been speculation the two companies still might partner up again in the future.
"It's a shame they can't get this together, because it's been such a successful partnership," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This formula has worked for years, consistently, with every movie out of this Disney-Pixar alliance."
Pixar has been talking with other studios about distributing its films.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Incredibles," $70.7 million.
2. "Ray," $13.8 million.
3. "The Grudge," $13.5 million.
4. "Saw," $11.4 million.
5. "Alfie," $6.5 million.
6. "Shall We Dance?", $5.65 million.
7. "Shark Tale," $4.6 million.
8. "Friday Night Lights," $3 million.
9. "Ladder 49," $2.6 million.
10. "Team America: World Police," $1.9 million.
Howard Keel, Star of Musicals, Dies at 85
LOS ANGELES - Howard Keel, the broad-shouldered baritone who romanced his way through a series of glittery MGM musicals such as "Kiss Me Kate" and "Annie Get Your Gun" and later revived his career with television's "Dallas," died Sunday. He was 85.
Keel died Sunday morning of colon cancer at his home in Palm Desert, according to his son, Gunnar.
Keel starred in Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals in New York and London before being signed to an MGM contract after World War II. The timing was perfect: He became a star with his first MGM film, playing Frank Butler to Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun."
Keel's size and lusty voice made him an ideal leading man for such stars as Esther Williams ("Pagan Love Song," "Texas Carnival," "Jupiter's Darling"), Ann Blyth ("Rose Marie," "Kismet"), Kathryn Grayson ("Show Boat," "Lovely to Look At," "Kiss Me Kate") and Doris Day ("Calamity Jane").
His own favorite film was the exuberant "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
"It was a fine cast and lots of fun to make," Keel remarked in 1993, "but they did the damn thing on the cheap. The backdrops had holes in them, and it was shot on the worst film stock. ... As it turned out, the miracle worker was George Folsey, the cinematographer. He took that junk and made it look like a Grandma Moses painting."
When film studios went into a slump, MGM's musical factory was disbanded. Keel kept busy on the road in such surefire attractions of "Man of La Mancha," "South Pacific," "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
Keel was in his early 60s and presumably nearing the end of his career when he suddenly became a star in another medium.
From its start in 1978, "Dallas" with its combination of oil, greed, sex and duplicity had become the hottest series in television. Jim Davis, who had played the role of Jock Ewing, died in 1981, and the producers needed another strong presence to stand up to the nefarious J.R. Ewing Jr. (Larry Hagman). They chose Keel.
"The show was enormous," Keel reflected in 1995. "I couldn't believe it. My life changed again. From being out of it, I was suddenly a star, known to more people than ever before. Wherever I went, crowds appeared again, and I started making solo albums for the first time in my career."
As Clayton Farlow, husband of "Miss Ellie" Ewing (Barbara Bel Geddes), Keel remained with "Dallas" until it folded in 1991.
When Keel was born in Gillespie, Ill., his name was Harold Clifford Leek. His father, once a naval captain, became a coal miner and drank to soothe his bitterness. During drunken rages, he beat his children. His mother, a strict Methodist, forbade her two sons from having any entertainment.
"I had a terrible, rotten childhood," Keel commented in 1995. "My father made away with himself when I was 11. I had no guidance, and Mom was six feet tall, bucktoothed and very tough. I was mean and rebellious and had a terrible, bitter temper. I got a job as an auto mechanic, and I would have stayed in that narrow kind of life if I hadn't discovered art. Music changed me completely."
At 20 he was living in Los Angeles and he was befriended by a cultured woman who took him to a Hollywood Bowl concert featuring famed baritone Lawrence Tibbett. Keel was inspired, and he started taking vocal lessons at 25 cents an hour. His first semiprofessional opportunity came as a singing waiter at the Paris Inn Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles at $15 a week and two meals a day.
Six foot three and a gawky 140 pounds, Keel was painfully shy. He worked during five years during World War II at Douglas Aircraft, and the experience helped his confidence.
He sang in recitals and opera programs and was summoned to an audition with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was looking for young singers to play Curly in the growing number of touring "Oklahoma!" companies.
Hammerstein approved, and soon under a new name Howard Keel he was singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" in New York eight times a week. He sometimes replaced John Raitt in Rodgers and Hammerstein's other hit, "Carousel" On occasion he would appear in a matinee of "Oklahoma!" and an evening performance of "Carousel." He played "Carousel" for eighteen months in London.
Rodgers and Hammerstein were notorious for underpaying their actors and denying them billing. Keel rankled at being paid $250 a week for the unbilled starring role in a sellout musical. As soon as his contract expired, he hurried back to Los Angeles.
Desperately in need of handsome, virile actors who could sing, MGM signed Keel to a contract that paid $850 a week.
He made it big in musicals, but also appeared in westerns: Waco," "Red Tomahawk," "The War Wagon" (with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas) and "Arizona Bushwhackers." After leaving MGM, he appeared as St. Peter in the unsuccessful "The Big Fisherman."
Keel was married and then divorced twice: to actress Rosemary Cooper and dancer Helen Anderson, with whom he had three children: Kaija, Kristine, Gunnar. In 1970 he married former airline stewardess Judy Magamoll. They had one daughter, Leslie.
He continued singing in the 1980s, explaining: "As long as I can sing halfway decent, I'd rather sing (than act). There's nothing like being in good voice, feeling good, having good numbers to do and having a fine orchestra."
Ono Combs the Vaults for New Lennon CDs
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - It's no coincidence that two new John Lennon albums, "Acoustic" and "Rock 'N' Roll," were released simultaneously earlier this week via Capitol.
As its name implies, "Acoustic" features 16 Lennon tracks recorded acoustically at home. "Rock 'N' Roll," originally released in 1975, captures Lennon singing tunes made famous by his idols.
"It's very dramatic to have 'Acoustic' and 'Rock 'N' Roll' together," Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono (news), tells Billboard. "They're the totally opposite sides of John's character."
For Ono, overseeing the projects is a way of keeping Lennon's memory alive. "We were partners, and then John kind of left it to me to take care of it. I feel honored about it," she says.
As Ono culled through Lennon's material for "Acoustic," she discovered that much of his piano acoustic works had been miked in a way that the piano overshadowed Lennon's voice and "there was no way to fix it," she says. Therefore, the 16 tunes on "Acoustic," seven of which are available officially for the first time, are all guitar-based.
Ono says she learned something new about her husband in the process. "I realized what an incredible acoustic guitar player he was," she says. "We're so used to listening to his electric guitar. But I thought this album has to go out because I want to encourage kids who want to learn guitar. And for the professionals, I think it will be inspiring to listen to his arrangements -- they're sometimes strange and sometimes beautiful."
Work on the "Rock 'N' Roll" reissue was in some ways more challenging, Ono says, recalling the struggles Lennon and producer Phil Spector went through during the project before Lennon finished the album on his own.
"When I first heard it again, I was crying because the power of these classic songs hits you anyway, but it's not just that," she says. "This is his wife saying it, but I think his versions are better than the originals because of the love he had for these songs."
As for the remaining material in the Lennon vault, Ono says there is not enough to make another album, but she expects that the songs will find other outlets, such as the new Las Vegas show planned by the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil or the upcoming musical based on Lennon's material.
HBO Ready to Bury 'Six Feet'
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO is preparing a eulogy for "Six Feet Under."
The pay cabler confirmed Friday that the upcoming fifth season of "Six Feet" will be the last for the ensemble drama revolving around the trials and tribulations of a family that runs a mortuary. Series creator/executive producer Alan Ball recently informed HBO executives that he felt the show will have run its creative course by the end of the upcoming 12-episode season.
"Working on 'Six Feet Under' has been enormously fulfilling creatively, but if the show is about anything, it's about the fact that everything comes to an end," Ball said in a statement. "I will miss working with such enormously talented writers, cast, staff and crew and I'll always be grateful to HBO for allowing and encouraging us to tell the story we set out to tell in a challenging and uncompromising way."
"Six Feet" has been a critical darling for HBO, if not a commercial hit on the scale of "The Sopranos" or "Sex and the City," since its 2001 debut. The drama -- whose ensemble cast includes Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Rachel Griffiths, Lauren Ambrose and Frances Conroy -- has been showered with Emmy nominations -- it earned 16 Emmy bids in 2002, its first year of eligibility, and 23 noms in 2003 -- but has yet to claim the top drama series prize in the annual Emmy derby.
"Six Feet" is a project that has been particularly close to the heart of Carolyn Strauss, HBO entertainment president, who originally dreamed up the notion of doing a series set in a mortuary. She pitched the idea to Ball, who was then hot off the success of his Oscar-winning screenplay for "American Beauty," and the writer-producer fell for it immediately.
"Dealing with death seemed like a very common experience that we could all relate to, and (the mortuary setting) seemed like a great lens for a fairly ironic show," Strauss said. "It also seemed like the kind of show that only (HBO) could do."
Strauss was quick to praise Ball and the rest of the "Six Feet" crew for "all the impressive work. It's been a fantastic experience to be associated with this show," she said.
Production on "Six Feet's" fifth season is set to begin Nov. 16, but a premiere date has not yet been set, Strauss said. Word of "Six Feet's" swan song season comes at a time when HBO is already in a transitional phase after bidding farewell to "Sex and the City" this year, while its other original series tentpole, "The Sopranos," isn't due back for its final season until 2006.
HBO has the sophomore season of its wild Western "Deadwood" on tap to premiere in January, followed in March by the return of Depression-era drama "Carnivale." Other series in the production pipeline at HBO are "Big Love," starring Bill Pullman as a modern-day polygamist in Utah, and the big-budget costume drama "Rome."
'Polar Express' Brings Risky New Animation to Film
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Even at a hefty cost of around $165 million to make "The Polar Express," director Robert Zemeckis thinks an innovative new animation technique he used may have saved the Warner Bros. studio and the film's producers about $835 million.
"Polar Express" marks a huge financial risk for the studio, and Warner Bros. hopes the film about a magical train ride proves a major hit when it chugs into theaters this Wednesday.
Add distribution and marketing costs that some reports put at $105 million, and "Polar Express" would need around $500 million at global box offices to break even, based on industry standards. That figure excludes DVD, video, television and other revenues that make the profit potential hard to determine when considering only theater ticket sales.
Zemeckis also is taking creative risk for using a revolutionary animated process he calls "performance capture" to tell of a child whose belief in Santa Claus is renewed on a trip to the North Pole.
"Like anything, whenever you do something for the first time, it's risky," Zemeckis told Reuters.
Zemeckis has pushed technology boundaries before, in movies such as "Forrest Gump," and the method behind "Polar Express" allows actor Tom Hanks to play five different characters.
There was no other way to recreate on film the lush paintings in Chris Van Allsburg's 1985 book, "Polar Express," Zemeckis said. Using computer animation as in the "The Incredibles" would have been too cartoonish, and live action as in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" would detract from the emotion and charm of the pictures, he said.
In a demonstration at the studio last month, he said making real sets and hiring actors would be "virtually impossible" and cost "in the range of a billion dollars." He and Hanks joked about saving Warner Bros. big bucks, but with Reuters Zemeckis repeated the billion dollar figure, and said it was no joke.
OLD TALE, TECHNO TWIST
The film tells the tale of a boy whose faith in Santa Claus and his belief in the Christmas spirit of giving have diminished as he has grown older.
But on this Christmas Eve, as he stays awake in bed, the roaring Polar Express comes to a stop outside his house.
In one role as a conductor, Hanks coaxes the boy onto the train where he meets other kids who have things to learn about themselves and Christmas. Their journey north is fraught with peril, but they are rewarded in a colorful send-off to Santa.
If the story sounds like tried-and-true holiday fare, the tale of making "Polar Express" is anything but standard.
In what Zemeckis has called creating human blueprints,
the actors wore black suits covered by special dots that allowed cameras and computers to track their every move. The dots -- 152, in all -- also covered their faces.
The actors' movements and expressions were digitized, loaded into computers and plugged into the animated world.
In recent years, a battle has been waged over using digitally created actors as substitutes for the real thing.
Zemeckis said the characters in "Polar Express" were never meant to look real, but were supposed to re-create the book's paintings. Among animators and critics, the result is mixed.
"Some people have been disturbed by the fact the kids didn't look realistic ... but there have been critics who loved the look of the film and said it captured Van Allsburg's work," said Ramin Zahed, editor in chief of Animation Magazine.
Whether movie fans accept that the human characters are not supposed to look human will be key to its box office success.
In 2001, Sony Pictures released "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" with computer-animated humans. Fans thought they looked fake, and it earned only $32 million in the U.S. and Canada.