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Post by architect on May 3, 2012 21:12:07 GMT -5
'Rock Of Ages' Spotlights A Tom Cruise You've Never Seen This summer, the city — and the cinema — will be built on rock and roll when "Rock of Ages" packs its ax, journeying from Broadway to a theater near you.
Set in Los Angeles and featuring the biggest jams of the '80s, the movie musical follows busboy/ aspiring rocker Drew Boley (played by Diego Boneta) as he falls for new-in-town Sherrie Christian (played by Julianne Hough) and lands a gig opening for rock legend Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). All the while, greater forces are at work trying to convert the drug- and sex-fueled Sunset Strip into a safer, gentler piece of prime real estate, much to the chagrin of the bandannaed masses.
In anticipation of opening night (June 15), MTV News caught up with director Adam Shankman ("Hairspray") to chat about Tom Cruise's crazy work ethic, '80s nostalgia and the perils of working with a baboon.
MTV: What was it specifically about "Rock of Ages" that drew you in?
Shankman: I thought, "Holy moly!" Here's an opportunity to make a musical truly for straight men. I mean, straight guys walk into the theater and they know every word of the music. So it's a completely different experience from girls having to drag their boyfriends to boys dragging their girlfriends.
MTV: There's been a lot of '80s nostalgia in pop culture lately. Is that an era you're particularly nostalgic for?
Shankman: I mean, that was my time. I graduated high school in '82. My dad's office was on Sunset. I saw my first concert at the Roxy. I was choreographing music videos in '87 when, it happens, I actually choreographed a video for someone whose music is in the movie. It was, you know, the last time I remember everything being kind of innocent. Everything kind of shifted then, suddenly fun became drug addiction and crazy, casual sex became AIDS. It was the end of all of that.
MTV: One of the film's many familiar faces is Tom Cruise, though I have a feeling this is a Tom Cruise we've never seen before.
Shankman: We have definitely never seen him do this before. A lot of the joy in this for him was just the adventure of trying something that was so foreign. I think part of the reason that he said yes to doing it was that he was so stunned that he was asked, and he thought, "Oh my god, of all the millions of things I've done in my career, nothing has ever been like this." He's a guy who loves challenges.
MTV: We did see him sing in "Top Gun."
Shankman: Not like this.
MTV: Is there a favorite musical number for you?
Shankman: I never cease to be in awe of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" because it was Tom on his first day of shooting, and he spent the day performing it for a giant crowd, and Def Leppard showed up on set and were there. That was an incredibly crazy, magical day.
MTV: Conversely, there's always a scene or two that give a director pause. Any particularly difficult moments for you on the set?
Shankman: Well, I have one of those that turned into one of the best scenes in the movie. There's a giant protest outside of the Bourbon, where Catherine Zeta-Jones and all the anti-Bourbon moms and all the rockers are fighting and they do a mash-up of "We Built This City" and "We're Not Going to Take It." Then, you know, we had the baboon there and the baboon got loose, and it was a nightmare and nobody could move because it was going to eat your face off. And then we were standing there for 20 minutes stuck on the street. Bizarre, bizarre day. On top of which, it was just really daunting because there was a lot going on. We had Sebastian Bach and Debbie Gibson and all these rockers there from that period. It was insane.
SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 3, 2012 21:21:58 GMT -5
Perfecting the '80s look on 'Rock of Ages' Rita Ryack spent several weeks tangling with Tom Cruise's leather pants. The costume designer for the upcoming 1980s musical "Rock of Ages" (opening June 15) was instrumental in Cruise's conversion into the fictional rock icon Stacee Jaxx, a self-involved guitar-playing idol in the vein of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. The coyote-fur jacket, the jewel-encrusted codpiece and the custom-made cowboy hat did wonders in transforming the normally strait-laced Cruise into a drug-addled performer with more in common with Mick Jagger than Ethan Hunt.
But it was the hand-stitched pants that proved the most trying component of the outré costume. Every time Cruise performed a rendition of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me," the pants would stretch out and lose their rocker slickness.
"We had a distresser standing by who would hand him his next pair, take the ones Cruise wore, dry them, shrink them up again and re-age them," said Ryack. "We had lots of pairs."
Beyond the Cruise transformation, Ryack was charged with turning Alec Baldwin into an aging hippie, Paul Giamatti into a cheesy music manager andMary J. Blige into a jumpsuit-wearing '80s diva without making it too costumey, per the instructions of director Adam Shankman ("Hairspray").
"In our first meeting, Adam said very clearly that because the '80s is such an inherently funny costume time, he didn't want the joke of the movie to be the clothes. It's still nuts, but we wanted to do hard rock 'n' roll, not costume rock 'n' roll like the White Stripes and Mötley Crüe. We stuck to a Guns N' Roses look." SOURCE
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Post by serin on May 5, 2012 2:55:01 GMT -5
Magic Mike To Stacee Jaxx: Who Will Be Summer’s Funniest (And Sexiest) Men?
16 hours ago | TheFabLife - Movies |
As The Avengers kick off summer movie season today with a bang or two (or 100), it’s easy enough to forget that blockbusters aren’t just about men in tights, showing off their massive CGI effects. On some of those sweltering days, you don’t want to step into a theater to worry about the fate of the world; you want to laugh your ass off. We’ve already looked at the ladies doing their part to make the season hilarious, and now it’s time for us to decide which of these sexy funnymen will be the sexiest and funniest at the multiplex from May through August.
This year, we have some double threats — the guys who will make us laugh and fan ourselves: Tom Cruise radiates sex as rock god Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages, Matthew McConaughey sells it as strip-club owner Dallas in Magic Mike, and »
TheFabLife.movies
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Post by architect on May 9, 2012 18:40:28 GMT -5
Music Producer Rates Tom Cruise's Vocal Skills, Oscar Potential When it comes to re-recording classic hits, music producer Adam Anders has all but turned it into a science. As Glee’s in-house maestro of sound (along with partner Peer Åström), Anders is tasked with reimagining songs by the likes of uber-cool artists Florence and the Machine, Fun. and Gotye, but his latest project finds him firmly in hair metal territory. Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi are just some of the artists featured on the Rock of Ages soundtrack, their songs performed by the movie’s stars including Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Malin Ackerman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julianne Hough, among others.
As executive music producer for the film and album, Anders worked closely with each of the actors, some of whom had zero previous singing experience -- unless you count Cruise’s mock rendition of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” in Top Gun. Whose talents came as a pleasant surprise to the seasoned pop producer? Did anyone need auto-tune? How did he re-approach Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” ROA’s big finale number? Read on for a Q&A with the soft-spoken Swede.
THR: Some of the actors had never been in musicals before. Like Tom Cruise, how would you rate his vocal skills on a scale of one to ten?
Anders: Now he's like a seven, but he started off at a one. He had never sung in his life. He was like, "I need to know that I can do this before I sign on." So I went to his house to hear him sing and even though he was completely green as a singer, his vocal cords were amazing. He had this voice that blew me away. It was the most powerful voice I had ever heard. So loud. He could do anything and go as high as we wanted. It was like a kid discovering he had a new toy. It was pretty amazing and I left there super-pumped knowing that not only could we make him pass as a singer in the movie, but we were going to be able to blow people away with what he could do.
THR: Was Tom nervous at all or was he confident that he could do it?
Anders: His confidence kept growing as we worked together. I think he started off a little nervous, as anybody would who has never done this, but he just bought it 110%. He works harder than anybody I've ever met in my life. By the end of this movie, the guy was just phenomenal. I remember telling him, 'You're a singer!'
THR: What kind of direction did you give the actors in terms of the singing?
Anders: My approach was, ‘Let's find the voice for this character in the movie. And not worry so much about how Axl Rose sings "Paradise City," let's worry about how Stacee Jaxx sings it. That's what we went after. We did the same with Julianne Hough, who's a country artist or Diego [Boneta] who was in a boy band. How do we now change you to a rock singer? Nobody can replicate Axl Rose or Jon Bon Jovi.
THR: How do you think people in the industry will react to Tom’s vocal talents?
Anders: Catherine Zeta-Jones was able to win for Chicago and I definitely think he would deserve at least a nod for this role. It's that good.
THR: An Oscar nod?
Anders:Yeah, for supporting actor. Musicals are tough usually, but there's already buzz around him. People have been in his corner since the movie. He transformed himself. SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 10, 2012 18:28:44 GMT -5
Technically this is an article (TBD) so moving the discussion to this thread. SOURCE
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Post by serin on May 11, 2012 4:28:15 GMT -5
Quote : "THR: An Oscar nod? Anders:Yeah, for supporting actor. Musicals are tough usually, but there's already buzz around him. People have been in his corner since the movie. He transformed himself." HAH !! I am the FIRST one who talked about an "OSCAR NOD".. Check the board.. *
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Post by caligirl on May 12, 2012 13:00:07 GMT -5
Update: DWTS on this Tuesday will have Hough and Boneta on the show and they will sing a duel from the musical. and Hi
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Post by architect on May 12, 2012 16:34:42 GMT -5
Hi caligirl, welcome to our humble abode
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Post by architect on May 12, 2012 16:36:18 GMT -5
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Post by serin on May 13, 2012 3:57:46 GMT -5
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Post by serin on May 13, 2012 3:59:23 GMT -5
Welcome aboard Caligirl.. We werent that humble while at World Crossing.. Those new forums are hard to cope with .. *
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Post by architect on May 14, 2012 18:46:34 GMT -5
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Post by architect on May 14, 2012 18:49:47 GMT -5
W Mag Interview: Guitar Hero It’s a Thursday afternoon in a studio in Los Angeles, and Tom Cruise, dressed in jeans and an untucked white button-down shirt, is belting out “Paradise City.” He’s performing the Guns N’ Roses song—which he sings during the opening credits of his new movie, Rock of Ages—in character, as Stacee Jaxx, a fading rock god from the eighties. Sitting in front of the glass-enclosed recording booth are Cruise’s music advisers, including Ron Anderson, formerly a vocal coach for Axl Rose, whose trademark screech Cruise has perfected. When Cruise started this project more than a year ago, he didn’t know whether he could really sing. “Adam Shankman, the director, asked me if I could carry a tune,” Cruise tells me later. “I said, ‘We’ll see, won’t we? This is either going to work or it’s going to be dreadful.’ ”
Throughout his career, Cruise has assessed roles by their degree of difficulty. He loves a challenge—especially if it involves mastering some new skill. Cruise has tossed bottles (Cocktail), flown fighter jets (Top Gun), hustled pool (The Color of Money), learned to live life as a Nazi with one arm and an eye patch (Valkyrie), raced cars (Days of Thunder), and, most recently, rappelled down the face of the tallest building in the world (Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol). He always works from the outside in: Even in his serious, Academy Award–nominated roles for Born on the Fourth of July (in which he was wheelchair-bound) and Magnolia (where he played a sex guru), his way into a character is through the physical. With Stacee Jaxx, he began with the mundane rock-star requirements—honing his newly discovered four-octave range and learning to play the guitar—but the physical soon gave way to the emotional. While everyone else in Rock of Ages is either ridiculous or playing their part with a wink (Alec Baldwin in a wig!), Cruise seems to actually be living in Stacee’s leather pants. He is alone inside another, much more interesting movie; there is a melancholic undertow to Stacee Jaxx—he’s only truly alive when he’s onstage, and he knows that his time there is nearly over . . . read the rest
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Post by architect on May 15, 2012 11:06:55 GMT -5
Tom Cruise: The Playboy Interview PLAYBOY: The first song you sang in front of a crowd was “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” with Def Leppard there, watching you. Pressure?
CRUISE: Yes. [laughs]
PLAYBOY: Director Adam Shankman said they were eager to abuse you, but you ruined it by nailing the song.
CRUISE: I was down in Miami, recording different songs, and Adam called and said, “Def Leppard’s coming by the set.” I said, “Man, that’s cool.” Then I paused. “Wait, I’m rehearsing their song tomorrow.” And he’s like, “Yeah!” [laughs] So we started right in the deep end, and that was the first scene I shot in the movie. It’s a great song, and I grew up listening to them. They went to the back of the Bourbon Room, and I looked at my band and was like, “Hit it.” All the crew was watching them watching me.
PLAYBOY: So what did they say?
CRUISE: Well, the lead singer, Joe Elliott, points at me and goes, “Fuck you! Fuck you!” Then I saw big smiles on their faces, and I realized I’d gotten their stamp. It was a very cool moment. It was important they knew I was honoring their music and not making fun of them.
PLAYBOY: It’s hard to take your character that seriously. He’s prone to theatrics, and his only real friend is a baboon.
CRUISE: He’s a slave to rock and roll. When he’s onstage, he gives it everything. Off it, he’s looking for soulful moments in odd ways, and that’s where the comedy comes in. We had this sweet love song, “I Want to Know What Love Is,” and I’m falling in love with this girl. But it’s a sex scene, and that’s where it has to be funny, because it’s rock and roll. I read all this stuff about Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Axl Rose, Motley Crue and the groupies. My character has them, but suddenly there’s this sweet scene that changes everything. If it works, people will laugh and it’ll be emotional. This hard-rock guy is singing this romantic duet, falling in love with this woman. But since it’s rock and roll, he’s singing most of it to her backside. . . read the rest.
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Post by architect on May 22, 2012 23:00:55 GMT -5
Diego Boneta's Interview Article Hair-metal superstardom is the holy grail for Diego Boneta’s character in Rock of Ages, director Adam Shankman’s new big-screen adaptation of the Broadway jukebox musical co-starring Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough, which hits theaters next month. In the film, set in 1980s Los Angeles, Boneta plays Drew, an aspiring singer chasing his dreams on the Sunset Strip, who holds nothing back as he belts out old chestnuts by Foreigner and Twisted Sister clad in studded leather. But wardrobe aside, Boneta’s own rise has been equally dramatic.
“It was starting from zero,” says Boneta, now 21, recalling his move to Los Angeles in 2007 as he struggled to balance the alternate realities of being a Justin Bieber at home and just another anonymous hopeful in Hollywood. “I felt like I was Bruce Wayne, auditioning during the day, and then at night I became Batman and would do my rock-star shows in the Latin world.” Boneta initially made the rounds on the American-teen TV circuit, scoring guest spots on 90210 and Pretty Little Liars, and a recast sequel to Mean Girls. But it was a video of Boneta auditioning for Glee that the actor posted online—he sang The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”—that caught the attention of Shankman, who quickly cast him in Rock of Ages. To prepare for the film, Boneta took guitar lessons with Cruise, who plays a frequently shirtless rock star named Stacee Jaxx, and got to record a song with Mary J. Blige for the soundtrack. “I would call my mom, and she would ask me how my day was, and I’d be like, ‘It was great. I had a scene with Tom, and I laid down a track with Mary J. at the studio,’ ” says Boneta. “It doesn’t get any better than this.” SOURCE
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