rock movies

Meet the Cast of Downtown Abbey!

Mar 032013

It’s Sunday night, America. Still no new episodes of Downton Abbey. You’re missing it, aren’t you? I know I am. But I’ve got some good news that may help satisfy your jonesin’ for the upstairs-downstairs antics of the 21st century’s early 20th century English estate.

You may recall our recent call to cast the rock musical version of the BBC/PBS smash hit Downton Abbey, the edgier Downtown Abbey. If you need a refresher, click this link. That’s why we provide such links, you know.

As expected, Townspeople were neither sparing nor unimaginative with their entries. Our celebrity judge, He Who Hates Litterbugs, had almost as tough a time choosing winners as we did finding pictures showing what must be considered the “bad” profiles of a number of our cast members. Our cast follows the jump, but first, congratulations to the following winners of the Top 5 casting entries, chosen for not only their physical resemblance to the Downton Abbey cast members but their overall mien:

mockcarr (Carson)
hrrundivbakshi (Kemal Pamuk)
machinery (Bates)
ladymisskirroyale (Thomas),
(TIE) chergeuvarra (Lady Crawley) & cdm (Lord Crawley)

See these inspired casting choices and many more…after the jump! Thanks to all who played along, even 2000 Man.

Downton Abbey: The Rock Musical

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 262013

Simon Le Bon as Matthew.

SPOILER ALERT: If you are a fan of the smash Masterpiece Theater series Downton Abbey and have not yet seen the conclusion to Season 3, you would be wise to go no further…unless, that is, your desire to cast the rock musical being made based on Downtown Abbey, retitled Downtown Abbey. If you don’t care about having the season-ending episode spoiler or if you’re up to date on recent developments and know already, proceed to the next page, where your chance to cast this rock musical extravaganza follows!

Action Mick has the Floor
and Declares the Winners of the
Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger Contest

Posted by The Back Office

Nov 302012

Attention, babies.

Action Mick has asked me to relay the following statement;

Action Mick has spoken.

Yes, he refers to himself in the third-person… Below is the official RTH casting for Rolling Stones: The Movie.

Casting is closed, babies.

As you know, our new BFFs over at Simon & Schuster, actually S&S imprint Gallery Books, has provided The Hall with 3 copies of this new release, Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger to give away. Our personal favorite review is:

Hot tub reading at its very tingliest.
– National Post

Click here to read more about the book.

Below the fold, as they say, are the three winners of the contest…

Bang!

Posted by Slim Jade

Nov 272012

Ginger Baker.

I am fired up about seeing this!

http://www.heavy.com/movies/movies-videos/movie-trailers/2012/03/beware-of-mr-baker/

You can have your Bonzo, your Keith Moon, your Animal from the Muppets…Ginger Baker is a motherfucker! In the first scene of this documentary, he apparently breaks the filmmaker (a former boxer)’s nose!

Angelina Jolie to Play Carly Simon in Upcoming Biopic

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 092012

You may recall these red carpet shots of Angelina Jolie from the 2012 Oscars:

She’s got leg.

Rock Town Hall’s Hollywood insider Links Linkerson reports that the actress has signed on to play singer-songwriter Carly Simon in a biopic tentatively titled You’re So Vain. The role of former husband James Taylor has been linked to John Hawkes. Other actors mentioned as possibilities for roles include Phillip Seymour Hoffman as drummer and later love interest Russ Kunkel, Harry Shearer as bassist Leland Sklar, and Holly Hunter as Mick Jagger. What’s believed to be an early cut from the film follows.

Last Man Standing: Non-Hollywood Musical Movies Based on a Song

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Oct 072012

I’m tempted, as I’ve been tempted too many times before, to think that I’ve come up with the shortest Last Man Standing contest ever, but you’ve proven us wrong too many times before. I’m so confident you’ll surpass my expectations that I’ll give away the one movie that recently came to mind for me that fits what I will hold according to strict criteria: non-Hollywood musical movies based on a song.

By “non-Hollywood musical movies based on a song,” I mean movies that were written outside the Hollywood musical tradition (whether actually made in Hollywood or not [ie, French musicals also don’t count]) specifically to play out the story of/capitalize on a pop song. Movies that simply use the title of a pop song (eg, High Fidelity) do not qualify. In fact, I think we long ago did a Last Man Standing on that topic. The movie has to be some (I would think in most if not all cases) misguided idea that the content of the pop song was not enough, that the pop song’s content had to be fleshed out as a feature film. Imagine, if you dare, an actual film portraying the events and evoking the moods of Don McLean‘s “American Pie” (the teen-exploitation film series of that title being a good example of movies that will NOT quality for this LMS). The screenplay, in other words, needs to be based on the song.

As I said, I am so confident that you will come up with dozens of instances of this practice, a practice I’d forgotten ever happened even once until spending a solid 45 minutes with the following 1978 gem, that I will kick things off with our first entry…after the jump!

Time Has Come Today: Let’s Talk About David Bowie’s Love You Till Tuesday Promotional Film (and The Man Who Fell to Earth, while we’re at it)

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 262012

Townsman trolleyvox asked if we could talk about this 1969 promotional film for David Bowie, Love You Till Tuesday. Time has come today, and while we’re at it feel free to talk about a 1976 film starring Bowie, Nicholas Roeg‘s The Man Who Fell to Earth, which I finally watched all the way through.

My main thought about the promotional film is that the ’60s could not contain Bowie. He had no available space to occupy. Everything he tried to do in a ’60s vein, including whimsical gnome pop, UK pop balladry, and soft-shoe/mime routines, had already been done better by Syd Barrett, The Bee Gees, and Davey Jones (The Monkees’ Davey Jones, that is), respectively. The scenes with him playing alongside his buddies are really awkward. David did not play well with others. He had to be his own man. He had to help shape the next decade. It was a matter of survival.

Speaking of matters of survival, Bowie is really good in The Man Who Fell to Earth. I’ve mildly enjoyed him in other small acting parts, but he does fall into self-consciousness more than a real actor should. In Roeg’s film he gets to play a variation on his musical character. He’s even an alien space traveler who misses his wife and is named Thomas. (No word on whether he ranked as a Major on his home planet.) As an added bonus, I got to see way more of Candy Clark‘s acting talents than she was able to display in a movie from my childhood that did much to shape me: American Graffiti.

When I was younger Roeg’s visual-heavy style left me unsatisfied, but since seeing this movie and re-watching Walkabout a few months ago I’m willing to see him as more than a Thinking Man’s Ken Russell. Maybe I’ll revisit Performance or Don’t Look Now or even the one about Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. Jeez, I’m turning into Buskirk!

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