Shortly after the PR fallout of the Internet hating on U2’s Songs of Innocence album release, frontman Bono is in the news yet again with a story that’s arguably more WTF than the release of a smart watch. In an interview with The Independent regarding the release of his new film A Walk Among the Tombstones, Liam Neeson talked about his friendship and partnership with fellow Irishman Bono and the screenplay they’re working on together. Here’s the segment from the story:
“We chat, or with him a lot of the time I just listen. He’s a wonderful man. He’s got an idea for a script which we’ve been working on for the past six years,” he says, going on to outline the story, which is inspired by the Irish showband phenomenon of the Seventies.
According to the Wikipedia page for Irish Showbands, “The Irish Showband was a dance band format which was popular in Ireland during the early rock and roll era from mid-1950s to the late 1970s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six or seven piece dance band. The band’s basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and cover versions of pop music hits. The music ranged from rock and roll and country and western songs to traditional dixieland jazz.”
Bono and guitarist The Edge actually got their start in Ireland playing Beatles and Stones covers as a band called Feedback, and a film called Killing Bono was released back in 2011 that followed a local Irish band that sat back and looked on as U2 was forming and became the biggest band in the world. Beyond that, Bono’s involvement with film has mostly been limited to work with Wim Wenders, as well as a small acting role in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe.
The Dissolve amusingly had a list of Liam Neeson movies that sound like U2 songs and U2 songs that sound like Liam Neeson movies, including some of the uncanny “Bullet the Blue Sky,” “Wake Up Dead Man” and “Until the End of the World.”
As Saturday Night Live enters into its 40th anniversary on September 27, the legacy show has announced with it a series of changes, as well as notable hosts for the upcoming season. First up for hosting duties is NBC and Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt on the season premiere along with musical guest Ariana Grande, followed by former SNL cast members Sarah Silverman and Bill Hader the two subsequent weeks. The show also announced a replacement for Weekend Update anchor Cecily Strong, The Daily Show‘s Michael Che. Che doubles as a writer on the show and will join current anchor/head writer Colin Jost, making Che the first black anchor on SNL. Strong will however remain as a regular cast member.
SNL also had to fill some voids following the firing of three featured players early in the summer, Brooks Whelan, Noel Wells and John Milhiser, and the departure of Nasim Pedrad to the FOX comedy Mulaney. Yet Lorne Michaels added only one new cast member, stand-up comedian and featured performer on Adam Devine’s House Party, Pete Davidson. He did however bring back an old favorite in the form of Darrell Hammond to replace the late Don Pardo as the show’s announcer.
George Clooney will receive the Cecil B. DeMille award at this year’s upcoming Golden Globes. The award is an honorary prize given for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”, with recent recipients of the award including Woody Allen, Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese. While always a nice tribute at an always entertaining awards show, it’s a good excuse for the HFPA to get Clooney there sans a movie coming out this year.
Following the success of the adaptation of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, another of his popular books, Paper Towns, is being adapted to a film. Previously attached are Director Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank), Fault in Our Stars scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber and Nat Wolff, who played Isaac in The Fault in Our Stars, in the lead role of Quentin Jacobsen. Now the female lead of Margo has been cast, Cara Delevingne, a British model and actress from 2012’s Anna Karenina.
Also making news:
- Vulture provided 15 simple and smart Netflix hacks, from eliminating buffering to improving the browsing experience to watching abroad.
- Included in this week’s Hype Cycle column, Chris Rock’s Top Five will get a December release, while other TIFF discovery 99 Homes from Ramin Bahrani will get a Spring 2015 release.
- Matthew McConaughey won’t be returning for Magic Mike XXL
- Adam McKay and Seth Rogen have been attached to respectively direct and star in an untitled project written by Parks and Rec star Ben Schwartz