Author: Sara Embrey

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Willie Nelson to star in a movie with U2’s Bono

 

Willie Nelson, one of the celebrity activists featured in the documentary Welcome to Eden from World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation, will be starring in a action adventure film titled, Waiting For a Miracle to Come. Another huge name in the music industry has also been linked with the project; legendary British rock group U2’s frontman Bono has been named the executive producer of the project, and will also be writing the film’s musical soundtrack. In 1989, Bono wrote “Slow Dancing” for Nelson, and U2 included the song on their 2011 Duals fan club album.

Nelson, alongside highly acclaimed British actress Charlotte Rampling, portray a pair of retired vaudeville stars who teach a young trapeze artist that there are other things in life more valuable than chasing gold. Waiting For a Miracle has been written and directed by Australian filmmaker Lian Lunson. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lunson stated, "I wrote this script for Willie Nelson; his presence and stillness as an actor is unlike anyone else…. And growing up I always wanted to be Charlotte Rampling, so bringing these two icons together on screen is a dream come true for me."  Lunson also directed the documentary, Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man, featuring Bono.

Widely known for his patriotic songwriting and iconic stage presence, Willie Nelson, who turned 81 this year, has also accumulated a film career spanning over 5 decades. Nelson first starred in The Electric Horseman in 1979, and has since starred in a myriad of box office hits such as Honeysuckle Rose, Barbarosa, Wag the Dog (New Line Platinum Series (1997), and Dukes of Hazzard (Rated). Willie Nelson also made his presence known in the World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation documentary, Welcome to Eden, speaking on behalf of the South Central Urban Farm’s right to exist.

Film production for Waiting for A Miracle to Come begins on Willie Nelson’s private Texas Ranch in March of 2015.

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Happy Valentines Day and Donor Day

 

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Love is in the air, and whether you have special someone or not, snuggling on the couch with a great film with a heartwarming love stories, is the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day. If you want a story about the first hints on love, then you should watch Ways to Live Forever - the charmingly hesitant chemistry between Ella Purnell, best known for Maleficent, and Robbie Kay, best known for playing Peter Pan in “Once Upon a Time,” is magically innocent.  For a love story past adolescence, see Rusty Steel, a Romanian action film with a romantic subplot, featuring car chases, exploding sea vessels, and some great kissing scenes between the gorgeous Irina Bucescu and Johann Urb. For the LGBT genre, Pop Kowboy an action packed, quirky comedy about three outsiders finding their place in the world.

Today is not only Valentine’s Day, but also Organ Donor Day, and though it may seem to be an unusual combination, a connection can definitely be made.  Love is symbolized through the heart, but it doesn’t stop there. Love is shown in many ways, and one of those ways is becoming an organ donor. The current organ shortage has lead to eighteen people dying a day while on the waiting list. On the other hand seventy-nine people get another chance at life with their new organ and can live a long healthy life. Over 120,000 people are waiting for lungs, hearts, kidneys and livers on the waiting list, while about 15,000 people donate their organs per year. If this situation is unchanged, we will never be able to save everyone. Become a donor at the DMV and you too can save lives. Love comes in many forms, from your first love to the love you feel for your children.

World Wide Motion Pictures has a number of films that will make you feel good about both of these yearly milestones.

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Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds at Sundance with “Mississippi Grind”

 

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Last week the LA Times featured Ben Mendelsohn and his charming nervousness at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Mississippi Grind. The film’s story concerns two gamblers, one down on his luck with financial problems (Ben Mendelsohn), and the other a younger, dynamic, free-spirited risk taker (played by Ryan Reynolds) . They embark on an adventure where they reconnect with past lovers and have an encounter with a loan shark, where they make ill-advised bets. The film has an unorthodox style of narration that typical viewers may not be used to.

Ben Mendelsohn apparently never watches himself on screen, and this film was no exception. As soon as the screening at Sundance started, he left for a cigarette break. His wife, Emma Forrest, acts as his eyes at screenings and helps him judge the quality of his performances.

This isn’t the only film that Ben Mendelsohn is in at Sundance this year; he also appears in Slow West a film about a sixteen-year old rich, Scottish boy who travels to America to find his love, in the 19th century. This film is about surviving and learning how to be a good man in a harsh world. Ben’s career has taken off in Hollywood in recent years, he became well known during his role as John Daggett in The Dark Knight Rises, where he plays Bruce's business rival, yet he started as a leading man in Australia as a teen.  In Amy distributed by World Wide Motion Pictures, Ben plays a sensitive musician that helps the titular main character, Amy, connect to the real world through singing. Ben Mendelsohn has said that roles like these suit him better, as he is a naturally sensitive person.

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Willie Nelson’s Grammy Hall of Fame

 

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Award season is just around the corner, and Willie Nelson’s album Stardust will join twenty-six other songs and albums in the 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame. This will be Willie Nelson’s third time to be immortalized by the Grammy committee.

Willie Nelson’s former manager, Neil Reshen, passed away recently at age 75, due to complications with Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Reshen was the fearless manager that negotiated music contracts for Willie Nelson (he and Waylon Jennings were Mr. Reshen’s first clients), and brought them into the public eye. The Red Headed Stranger album from 1975 rose to number one on the country charts and number twenty-eight in the pop charts, and it catapulted Willie Nelson into the spotlight. Red Headed Stranger, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.

Willie Nelson’s second Grammy Hall of Fame selection was the single “Always on my Mind” from his Columbia album, which was made in 1975 and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. Readers can watch the Grammy’s, which occur this year on February eighth on CBS at 7pm ET/PT.

In the documentary feature film Welcome to Eden, Willie Nelson is featured as a celebrity supporter of the now-demolished South Central Farm in Los Angeles. It is now available on Vimeo.

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Emilia Fox in Silent Witness and WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER

 

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“The British are coming” to US TV audiences and the public is going wild. More and more Americans are enjoying British TV shows such as Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, and Sherlock, and have fallen in love with talented actors like Benedict Cumberbatch and Hugh Bonneville. Another of these TV show treasures is the crime drama Silent Witness, similar in style to Bones, which has been on the air in the UK since 1996 and has a loyal following. While the program hasn’t aired yet in the states, it is just as compelling and deserves to find a new following.

The great Emilia Fox plays a complicated character with a difficult past in her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander. The talented cast of the show also includes William Gaminara, who plays Professor Leo Dalton, and Tom Ward playing Dr. Harry Cunningham, a humorous Forensic Pathologist who solves crime in an unconventional way. While US audiences are no strangers to crime drama, the British crime shows have a style all their own, oftentimes being more realistic and well-crafted. Emilia Fox states in a Digital Spy article that the last two episodes were “the hardest scenes I've had to do.” The episodes are stand alone stories with new detail being revealed about Dr. Nikki Alexander’s personal life. Silent Witness is ending its eighteenth season and its twentieth anniversary, and the cast and crew have grown into a family so much that even Rose, Emilia Fox’s daughter, has a special place on set. Emilia Fox says that she enjoys having her on set and being a mother. Her parental role wasn’t a far stretch from her role as the mother in Ways to Live Forever, distributed by World Wide Motion Pictures, where her character takes care of her son with leukemia.

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Transgender Term Acknowledged in State of the Union and in Media

 

This week marked the State of the Union address, and boundaries have been broken once again. President Obama spoke about American values and principles of human dignity, justice and civil liberties. While speaking, he said “we continue to reject offensive stereotypes of Muslims, …. or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We do these things not only because they are the right thing to do, but because ultimately they will make us safer” Previously, former President Bill Clinton was the first president to say the word “gay” in his State of the Union Address back in the year 2000. It has taken fifteen years to include mention of those who are bisexual and transgender.

The struggles of transgender individuals are also becoming more prominent in popular culture, such as the character of Sophia in Orange is the New Black, incarcerated in a woman’s prison. One of these struggles is also represented in the feature film Pop Kowboy, distributed by World Wide Motion Pictures. The film concerns three diverse characters trying to find themselves and getting entangled in each others lives. Frankie, played by Craig Olsen, is transgender woman in need of money, who meets Vinnie, played by Ronnie Marmo (from General Hospital), an incompetent aspiring gangster, who has been given one last chance to make good with the local mob boss. Pony, played by Shawn Driscoll from America's Sweethearts, is a wannabe cowboy who has trouble finding love. He botches the briefcase delivery with Vinnie and ends up on the run with Frankie, beginning their own special friendship. The LGBT angle is a small portion of the film, and not sensationalized, giving the humorous film a non-stereotypical feel. The film also shows how difficult family life can be for a transgender person, and why President Obama’s State of the Union address was so historic.