The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
If you’re the type who thinks 1960s British rock music and buddy-cop movies and television shows are the best in entertainment, consider yourself lucky. Why? Because last week saw the local debut of a documentary about an iconic band and the small-screen version of a successful Hollywood franchise that may give you a nostalgic fix.
Opening in cinemas last Wednesday was The Beatles: Eight Days a Week— The Touring Years, Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard’s efficient and elegantly edited film that focuses on the first phase of the Fab Four’s career, which spanned from 1962 to 1966.
According to Eight Days a Week distributor Solar Entertainment Inc., the film chronicles how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr came together and the unprecedented adulation they and their well-crafted songs inspired.
The documentary explores the group’s inner workings—how they made their decisions and composed their music— as well as the unique personality and remarkable musical gifts of each of its members.
In addition, it highlights the four’s close camaraderie and how their insane popularity tested and isolated them, and the significant political events that accompanied their rise to superstardom.
It also features new interviews with surviving members McCartney and Starr; Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg; Oscar-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver; singer Elvis Costello; and journalist Larry Kane, who closely covered the Beatles’ tour in America, who all share their memories of that time and of the profound cultural impact the band made.
For Filipinos, Eight Days a Week should be of interest, because it also touches on the Beatles’ tour stop in Manila. Many of us are familiar with the details: an invitation to visit then-President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda at Malacañang Palace that inexplicably went unheeded; the Fab Four being manhandled on their departure; their vow to never return to the country.
Eight Days a Week is a must-see for Beatles fans, and those who weren’t born when the band was at the peak of its fame should get a good glimpse of what made it so special to the baby-boom generation.
Profitable series
On the small screen, Warner TV premiered last Thursday at 8:10 p.m. its newest series—Lethal Weapon, based on the profitable series of films directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
For those unfamiliar with the hit franchise, Lethal Weapon focuses on former Navy SEAL-turned-detective Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford), who, after he lost his beloved wife and unborn child in a car accident, moves to California to start over at the Los Angeles Police Department.
There, the still-devastated Riggs is partnered with Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans), a cautious, by-the-book cop who just returned to active duty after recovering from a near-fatal heart attack. Almost immediately, Riggs’ habit of recklessly putting himself in harm’s way clashes with Murtaugh’s obedience to protocol.
What made the Lethal Weapon movies click with audiences was the casting, and producers Matt Miller, Dan Lin, Jennifer Gwartz, and McG knew that choosing the right actors would be a big challenge, and they think they found them in Crawford and Wayans.
“We think that, of all the challenges of remaking a show and remaking this iconic franchise, I would say the casting is what I’m most proud of. That you watch this show and you don’t think about Mel Gibson and Danny Glover at all. You just watch these two—and they’re amazing together on screen,” Miller said in a Warners TV statement.
During the local press launch for the series in Makati City last Tuesday, Turner Asia Pacific Vice President for Content and General Entertainment Marianne Lee said Lethal Weapon will have 13 episodes, and if all goes well, that number would be increased to 22.
Audiences can catch new episodes of Lethal Weapon on Thursdays at 8:10 p.m. ALVIN I. DACANAY