Billy Talent Lights Up

Anti-establishment angst. Four-band roster brings potent mix of furious energy and politically charged music

T'CHA DUNLEVY, The GazettePublished: Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Toronto's Billy Talent blazed into the Bell Centre last night, topping a four-band roster that brought out 11,800 fans for four straight hours of adrenaline-charged, politically minded music.
Billy Talent's new album II veers into hard rock, metal and even radio-friendly fare, without selling its soul. Judiciously balancing its set between new material and songs from its self-titled debut, the band played for nearly 90 minutes.
A tidal wave of screams erupted as the lights went out, a testament to Billy Talent's devoted following. And if there was any lingering doubt, the sinister guitar riffs and Ben Kowalewicz's piercing wail in the opening of This Is How It Goes proved the potency of the potion.
Leaning into the monitors at the front of the stage, the singer screeched like a fighting wildcat. And the crowd roared back.
"Bonjour tout le monde, ca va?" Kowalewicz asked, after, in a demented caterwaul. "This is amazing."
The energy only increased with the next two songs, Devil In a Midnight Mass and This Suffering.
"Wow," the band leader said, picking up the thread.
"You know, I was born in Montreal. I was born in the West Island. So playing here tonight is a dream come true. Thank you very much."
His shirt was off by the fourth song, and all bets were off as to how high the collective energy would rise. Billy Talent is a damn solid band, with a great frontman, and great songs that combine irresistible pop hooks and a fearless attack.
The chorus to The Navy Song ("In the fall! In the fall!") is a riotous schoolyard chant that borders on battle cry. And it is just one of many.
"So we all know that George W. Bush is an evil man," Kowalewicz said, introducing the fascism warning-call Worker Bees. "But we, as Canadians, have a new problem on our hands. And that problem's name is Stephen Harper."
The song is an anthem - there are several on the new album - with the chorus, "Can we fight to save our souls?" The answer was a resolute yes.
Lofty topics aside, the bad-girlfriend rant The Ex was equally able to get people going, turning the floor into one big mosh pit. On a more sentimental bent was the melodic power-ballad Surrender. Even anti-establishment freedom fighters, it appears, have their moments of weakness.
But with Fallen Leaves, and the set-ending Try Honesty, and the wild Red Flag in the encore, we were back to passionate clarion calls, leading an army of enraptured believers toward a heckuva night.
While Billy Talent had the headlining spot, the first three bands more than held up their end of the deal.
Rise Against, just before, received the kind of rousing response usually reserved for the main attraction.
Arms went up from front to back, with even the slightest prompting from singer Tim McIlrath, who dedicated the band's set to "those who believe in the power of music to change lives." Anti-Flag and Moneen were equally impressive.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

SAW III "Three-Peats" at Number One on DVD Charts

Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures' SAW III 'Three-Peats' at Number One on DVD Charts While Also Claiming Most Successful Week One Blu-Ray Debut

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For the third year in a row, blood reigned supreme as SAW III, the highest-grossing theatrical horror film of 2006, followed in the footsteps of its predecessors by slicing through the competition to finish at number one among this week's new home entertainment releases. Debuting on DVD and Blu-ray disc, the psychological thriller from Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the premier independent filmed entertainment studio, and Twisted Pictures sold 1.6 million units its first day and finished the week in the top spot with 2.5 million units sold. Also, according to Rentrak Home Essentials, SAW III Blu-Ray disc is the largest and most successful Blu-Ray debut to date. Released theatrically by Lionsgate in October 2006, SAW III "gross"ed over $80 million domestically and more than $100 million in worldwide theatrical box office. The success of SAW III highlights a dominant week for Lionsgate on the national DVD charts, scoring four of the top seven titles (SAW III #1, Lionsgate and Marvel's INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #3, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH #5 and former chart-topper CRANK #7) and six of the top 20 (catalyzed by the success of SAW III, SAW II re-entered the charts at #15 and SAW reappeared at #16). Continuing an impressive start of the year for Lionsgate, SAW III is the second number one DVD release for Lionsgate this month, following in the footsteps of CRANK, which reigned supreme on the DVD charts following its January 9 release. CRANK earned $30 million in domestic box office, sold 2 million units in its first week and appears positioned to significantly overindex its theatrical box office performance on DVD, reflecting another example of Lionsgate's typically high theatrical box office-to-DVD conversion rate. The performance of SAW III continues the overwhelming dominance of the SAW franchise. One of the most successful global horror franchises in history, the first three SAW releases have earned more than $400 million in worldwide box office receipts. Additionally, SAW and SAW II have sold more than 10 million DVDs combined to date. In fact, the first SAW release continues to rack up sales, ranking among the top 10 on VideoScan's top horror sellers as recently as January 7 of this year. SAW II was also in the news this week as the title made its long-awaited debut on Blu-ray disc. "Jigsaw is one of the more unique madmen in horror movie history and his life-and-death games continue to fascinate horror fans, assuring that the Saw franchise will have legs for a very long time," said Ron Schwartz, Lionsgate Home Entertainment General Manager and Executive Vice President. Mark Burg and Oren Koules of Twisted Pictures commented, "We are delighted to see Jigsaw once again wreaking havoc in home entertainment, and applaud the Lionsgate team for their characteristically inspired work on SAW III. Their efforts have been invaluable in making the entire Saw franchise a smashing and continuing success, and we think the future looks bright -- if necessarily rather bloody."

ULB & Planet Hollywood Enter Co-Branded Relationship

ULB “The Hollywood Series” and Planet Hollywood co-branded merchandise will launch in Planet Hollywood stores in Las Vegas in February. ULB The Hollywood Series merchandise will include playing cards by NMR Distribution, junior Ts manufactured by Giant Merchandising, tote bags by Concept One, plush pillows and door hangers by Fiesta Toy, buttons and key chains by C&D Visionary and hosiery by You and Me. Plans for an in-store promotion with ULB creator Wendy L’Belle at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas are scheduled for March.

WWE back on top

Came across some disturbing information this week which confirms my worst fears that the WWE is once again on the rise in terms of popularity. I guess the old adage about not being able to keep a good thing down also applies to a bad thing. Shakespeare, Beethoven, Vince McMahon? Now isn't that special. Is this the best our society can offer in mass entertainment? Has the creative well run that dry? Oh how the mighty have fallen.

S.O.S. Steve Jobs. You've given us the ipod and Pixar, but we need more. If left to our own devices we'll slide right back to our old intellectually unwashed ways. You've got to have something left in that genius brain of yours that will keep us preoccupied and save us from our own worst enemy. Ourselves. We can't be left alone or trusted. We can be so convincing and sound so sincere but don't believe it for a minute. The moment you turn your back we'll be playing with the cultural lighter. History is littered with so many examples like American Gladiator, Joanie Loves Chachi and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. We couldn't be content to sit back and wait for (Insert Title Here) 3 to come out. We just don't have the self discipline. You owes us. We've made you rich beyond your wildest dreams and the time has come to give back. In case you need a little more incentive rumor has it that Bill and Vince are getting pretty chummy. Be warned the natives are getting restless.

Hairspray On MTV

As seen on MTV's TRL featuring both Zac Efron and Amanda Bynes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8cy0Tdq53Y

Travolta is queen of hairspray

Travolta is queen of 'Hairspray'
Posted 1/18/2007 10:04 PM ET
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
TORONTO — Given Hollywood's recycling addiction, déjà-viewing is more rampant than ever. So USA TODAY issues a challenge to the filmmakers behind seven of 2007's most-anticipated family-friendly sequels and films spun from stage and TV: Tell us what is fresh and different this time around.
Hairspray
Opens: July 20
Stars: John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Christopher Walken
"I used to always say women had the best parts in American musicals," John Travolta says moments before he wiggles into the plus-size persona of Baltimore hausfrau Edna Turnblad for one last time on the set of Hairspray. "Little did I know."
From '50s drag-racing to '60s drag. It has been almost 30 years since a 24-year-old Travolta slid into the role of Rydell High stud Danny Zuko in Grease. Now the middle-aged actor is back in tune and bigger than ever, thanks to a padded bodysuit, as a frumpy mama to a tubby teen dance sensation and unlikely civil rights activist, Tracy (effervescent newcomer Nicole Blonsky).
It's the first movie musical since Dreamgirls to test audience's hunger for toe-tapping entertainment. And New Line Cinema is hoping for a little summer loving when the pop-fizzy $70 million film, about what happens when an all-white American Bandstand-style TV show gets a soul infusion, opens July 20.
But Travolta won't be the whole show. There is a cast member to attract almost every age group. Baby boomers get Christopher Walken, who has been known to cut a mean rug, as Edna's indulgent hubby, Wilbur, and Grease 2 alumna Michelle Pfeiffer as mommy-not-so-dearest Velma von Tussle. Tweeners, meanwhile, will be a-twitter to see High SchoolMusical sensation Zac Efron as Tracy's beau, Link, and kid-TV queen Amanda Bynes as Tracy's lollipop-licking pal, Penny.
But nothing quite beats the promise of Travolta in a dress as a surefire tease. "Everyone keeps saying, 'Oh, my God, never in a million years would you know that was John,' " producer Craig Zadan says.
It's not that the actor, who established himself as a dance-floor icon as disco king Tony Manero in 1977's Saturday Night Fever, has been intentionally avoiding the genre. He came close to signing up for 1985's A Chorus Line and 2004's Phantom of the Opera. But the actor knew he couldn't follow Grease, the biggest-grossing movie musical of all time, with the same old song and dance.
Enter Zadan and producing partner Neil Meron, part of the creative team behind the 2002 Oscar best-picture winner Chicago, which helped rekindle Hollywood's affair with the musical. If their experience with Chicago taught them anything, it was that A-list names such as Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones are an essential ingredient when making the transition from Broadway to screen.
And Travolta, who had deep regrets about turning down Gere's role of Billy Flynn after seeing Chicago, was the one that they wanted for their Edna. "He's the greatest musical film star that we have for this generation," Meron says.
Still, it took about a year of convincing before Travolta said yes. The problem wasn't about playing a woman. It was about competing with his twentysomething self.
"We told him this would be the most unexpected way of returning to musicals," Zadan says. "No one would be able to compare Edna with the characters in Saturday Night Fever and Grease."
Travolta had some very specific thoughts on how to distinguish his fat lady from the previous men-to-femme incarnations by John Waters muse Divine in the original 1988 film comedy and by gravel-voiced Harvey Fierstein in the 2002 Broadway production.
"I thought, well, OK, if I really go for it, instead of the joke of being a man in woman's accoutrements, I should put my actor's hat on and just be the best woman you can be," he explains. "As if a woman had been hired in the first place." The only recognizable portions of Travolta that peep out from the foam latex and silicone are his eyes and dimpled chin.
He has wanted Edna to pack more va-va-voom than in the past. His role models? Such '60s sirens as Sophia Loren and Anita Ekberg.
Although some blogs were both agog and aghast over the initial images of the cross-dressed actor, co-star Queen Latifah can't get enough of Travolta as a full-figured gal.
"Oooh, we love that booty," rhapsodizes the Oscar nominee for Chicago, who showcases her bluesy pipes as record-shop owner Motormouth Maybelle. "Every time he comes out in the costume, we've got to rub on the booty a little bit. It's just such a big round rump."
As Travolta devised his character makeover, the producers, along with director/choreographer Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House, The Pacifier) and writer Leslie Dixon (Mrs. Doubtfire), devised a blueprint for how to handle what is becoming an increasingly popular scenario: A hit movie is reborn as a smash Broadway musical that then boomerangs back to the big screen with songs attached.
Their refrain? Less is more. On stage, everything is heightened, from Day-Glo sets to cartoony costumes, to ensure that even the cheap seats catch each gag and double-take. But movies are a much more intimate medium that doesn't need to try so hard. In other words, the beehive hairdos are more Empire State Building than Sears Tower.
"We basically wanted to de-camp it," Meron says, "to take the exaggeration out of it and find the true heart of Hairspray."
Other new ingredients in the reformulated Hairspray:
•TheHigh Schoolhop Probably the savviest hire was the kid who could be the next Travolta: Efron, 19, the fresh-scrubbed star of one of the TV phenoms of the decade, the Disney Channel's High School Musical. Says Zadan, "He's the hottest young star in America."
Adds Shankman: "Bigger things are waiting for him. He is a real actor, and he gives a real performance in this." And Efron also carries his own tunes — another voice was mixed with his on the High School Musical soundtrack.
He gladly opted out of the current Musical tour, although he is doing the sequel, to hang with such idols as Travolta and Walken.
"It keeps you on your toes knowing there is so much firepower in this movie," the California-based actor says, his squeal-inducing floppy brown hair dyed Elvis black and lacquered atop his head. "It's a blessing to be involved in this."
The director had one peeve about the lad: His Osmond-esque grin. "Something was too Mickey Mouse Club about him. I told him not to smile too broadly." Instead, his Link has a cocky quirk of winking at everyone he meets. "Even Edna," Shankman says.
The role was tailored to suit Efron's style. "On stage, Link sings a slow ballad, It Takes Two," the actor says. "But they've amped it up and gave me a rock 'n' roll song, Ladies' Choice. He's a rebel who represents a whole new generation slicking back their hair and shaking their hips."
•The ingénue bop The filmmakers were determined to cast an unknown to follow in the dance steps of Ricki Lake, who has a cameo, along with Waters and Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur. Little did they know their perfect Tracy would be found scooping ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery in Great Neck, N.Y.
Blonsky, 18, a 4-foot-10 dynamo who can sing everything from Patsy Cline to opera, beat out a couple thousand hopefuls to nab her dream role.
"When she walked out her first day on the set," Shankman says, "it was if she had been doing this for 30 years. Like watching a Barbra Streisand being born."
Ever since seeing Hairspray on Broadway as a 15th birthday gift, Blonsky felt destined to be Tracy.
"When the girl entered and started singing Good Morning, Baltimore, I nudged my mom and said, 'I could totally do that. That's me,' " says the trained vocalist, who gets to perform a new Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman tune, I Can Wait.
In a way, she has lived Tracy's story. "I always wanted to be out there, just singing," she says. "I needed that one shot. All my life, I've never been the thin girl or the tall girl. I've just always been Nikki. And I'm comfortable in my skin."
Not that Blonsky didn't have to do any homework. The day before she met her movie mom, she watched Grease for the first time after being encouraged to do so by Efron.
"I was like, 'Oh, my God, I'm going to meet this man tomorrow!' But John instantly made me feel comfortable. He opened his arms and said, 'Come to Mama.' "
•The director cha-cha When the Broadway version's director, Jack O'Brien, and choreographer Jerry Mitchell dropped out because of other commitments, the producers scrambled to find a replacement.
Turns out, Shankman, a trained dancer who has choreographed 50 or so movies, was itching to get back to his musical roots and eagerly took on both duties. "Of all the directors we talked to, he was the most passionate," Meron says.
"This is what I was meant to do," Shankman says. "To be able to use my entire skill set and realize this crazy story with this kind of cast."
In other words, he says, "I'm not Chris Columbus doing Rent."
Where Grease and Hairspray diverge for Travolta is in the fact that, unlike 34-year-old Stockard Channing as Rizzo, the younger cast members are all age appropriate.
"A lot of these kids were brought up on Grease," he says. "So for me to do this movie, I give them a reason to be excited, and they give me the energy back."
And what has he learned from his time in a woman's shoes — not to mention bra?
"You get treated differently. You put on a zaftig body, and men just go up to it. They check me out from head to toe and back. When I'm John, I barely get a second look."