Paul McCartney Doc from Morgan Neville Announced at UMG Showcase – The Hollywood Reporter
Paul McCartney is being turned into a documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville.
Neville helped announce the news Saturday afternoon inside Milk Studios, which hosts Universal Music Group’s all-star artist showcase, an annual Grammy Awards weekend event hosted by president and CEO Lucian Grainge presents, often with a program of musical performances combined with some breaking news about Uni film projects. Today’s installment, the first rollout in three years due to the pandemic, is no different from McCartney news, a documentary about Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste from Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman and a spring release date on HBO for Love to love you, Donna Summer.
The McCartney Project is called man on the run and from MPL Communications (the umbrella company of McCartney’s business interests) and Polygram Entertainment (the film and television division of UMG). According to official information, the film will focus on McCartney’s life period after The Beatles disbanded, while also featuring never-before-seen archives and new interviews. It will begin as the rocker navigates the aftermath of the breakup, his life with his beloved wife Linda McCartney, and the epic creative boom that follows.
man on the run will serve as “the definitive document on Paul’s emergence after the breakup of the world’s biggest band and his successful creation in the second decade of musical milestones – a period brilliant and satisfying passage.” His solo career has yielded songs like “Perhaps I Surprised,” “Another Day,” “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” “Hi, Hi, Hi,” “My Love,” “” Live And Let Die,” “Band On The Run,” “Jet,” “Junior’s Farm,” “Listen To What The Man Said,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Mull Of Kintyre,” “With A Little Luck,” “Goodnight Tonight” and more.
Neville, who won an Oscar for 20 feet from the starcame to the film after having worked on other documents such as Roadrunner: Films about Anthony Bourdain and focus on Mr. Rogers Won’t you become my neighbor? He is producing with Michele Anthony and David Blackman of UMG, producers Caitrin Rogers, Scott Rodger of Maverick and Ben Chappell of MPL. man on the run Fully funded by MPL and Polygram and presented and produced by MPL, Polygram and Tremolo Prods.
“How do you rediscover yourself after being in the biggest band the world has ever known? Well, until The Beatles broke up, no one had to answer that question,” Anthony explained to the crowd sitting inside Milk Studios. “At its core, it is the story of Linda and Paul’s enduring love as he finds his own voice as an artist, leading to one of the most creative periods of his life. there.”
Neville, who describes himself as “Beatle-maniac” and is obsessed with McCartney, said he’s read every book and seen every documentary about the band but has found something new with man on the run. “I was too young to buy Beatles records when they came out, but I could buy Wings records and I loved them. To me, the story of what happened to Paul after The Beatles when he had to rediscover himself is a story that has never been told,” he said. “When Universal and Michele called me about this, it took me about three seconds to say I had to do this. It’s something I think I’ve been working on since I was 10 years old.”
Batiste also attracted attention when announcing a partnership with Heineman in American Symphony, a documentary about his path to the creation of the stage show of the same name that premiered at Carnegie Hall last fall. The film is said to be an up-close look at his creative process and an unprecedented look at his personal life during its heyday when it won five Grammy Awards (including his own album). years for “We Are”) and the lowest in the face of his wife’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In short comments this afternoon, Batiste talked about roller coasters. “Looking back, you know, it was very difficult for me. It is something to share. For the purpose of giving people a chance to access the power of art but mainly the power of our own resistance,” he explains. “This is a life affirmation that happens when you face your death and you face your possibilities. You face boundaries of something you didn’t know you could do or didn’t know you could cross, and can cross it on the other side.”
He praised Heineman, whom he called an “incredible artist” who he allowed to film him “for a year straight, every day, who is vulnerable and has open eyes loudest I have ever encountered with a camera.” Heineman came to the project after receiving critical acclaim for such documents as First Wave, Upstream, Tiger, Boy from Medellin And Land of Cartel. “Hopefully this movie will reach you and my experiences will teach you something about yourself, about life, about struggle, about victory, about humanity,” Batiste said.
The movie announcements were made into a program that featured a parade of UMG artists’ performances in front of executives, music industry insiders and fellow artists. Sitting inside Milk Studios on Saturday were Elton John (with David Furnish), David Zaslav, Niall Horan, Ice Spice, Fletcher, Yo Gotti, Sabrina Carpenter, Brooklyn and Bruce Sudano, Queen Naija, Natalie Jane, etc.
UMG executives in attendance included Angel Kaminsky, Avery Lipman, Ben Adelson, Bruce Resnikoff, David Blackman, Dickon Stainer, Elliot Grainge, Frank Briegmann, Gary Kelly, Imran Majid, Jesus Lopez, Jo Charrington, Jody Gerson, John Janick, JT Myers, Justin Eshak, Marc Cimino, Michelle Jubelirer, Monte Lipman, Nat Pastor, Richelle Parham, Sam Riback, Steve Berman, Tunji Balogun, Tyler Arnold and Wendy Goldstein, among others.
“We’re back,” Grainge said at the start of the show. “Can you believe it has been three years since we were last in this room honoring new artists and music? We are all back together. A lot has happened in the last three years, and today it’s just about the music.”
Taking the stage at the showcase (presented by Merz Aesthetics’ Xperience+ and Coke Studio) were Kim Petras, Sam Smith, Samara Joy, Glorilla, Stephen Sanchez, Lauren Spencer Smith, Feid, Muni Long and Doechi. Grainge saved up a surprise last-minute performance as he greeted country icon Shania Twain to close the show. Audiences were clearly enthralled with the performances, giving a standing ovation to many of the artists, a rarity for the sometimes stifling showcases of the labels.
That’s certainly not the case today, the event started to gain a lot of attention thanks to a standing ovation for blockbuster actor Billie Eilish, who opened the show by taking the stage to received the inaugural honor — the UMG x Reverb Amplifier award — presented by Grainge on behalf of her ecological activism. Eilish said she feels “very honored” with the trophy. “Everybody in this room, we can all do our part. Many of you already have some money in your damn pocket. It can be used for good, not stupid things.”
See more highlights from today’s show below.
