Monthly Archives: November 2011

Zoo Preview: November 26th!

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20th Century Fox has announced that We Bought A Zoo will receive special sneak preview screening on Saturday, November 26th on more than 800 screens across the USA.

“Once in a while, we’re lucky enough to have a picture to which audiences of all kinds and all ages respond so strongly that it demands a big and unexpected event,” said Fox President and marketing chief Oren Aviv. “‘We Bought a Zoo’ is that kind of picture — and Thanksgiving is a great time to share it via this special, very early preview.”

Cameron is equally excited. “I think I’m the one getting the early holiday gift,” Crowe said. “Holding previews so far ahead of our opening is a bold movie — but that’s one of the many reasons I like it.”

There will be an online chat with Cameron that evening and chances for viewers to share their experiences with the film via Twitter and Facebook. More details on that in the coming weeks.

 

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Nov 17, 2011

Listen: Jónsi’s “Gathering Stories”

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NPR premiered the brand new song from We Bought A Zoo entitled “Gathering Stories”. The song is a collaboration from both Jónsi and Cameron. Have a listen, we hope you like it.Here’s Cameron discussing how Jónsi and his music inspired the film and how he ultimately became involved. These are part of the liner notes for the soundtrack which will be released on December 13th. (Amazon.com or iTunes)

Both with Sigur Rós, and in his solo work, Jónsi has always made music that captured the human adventure. Early on, it was obvious that this music would have a profound effect on the making of “We Bought A Zoo.” In preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of Sigur Rós transcendent documentary, “Heima,” (Icelandic for “home”). We all watched the film and listened to the music, and it quickly seeped into our own journey in filming the real-life story of Benjamin Mee’s book. The actors listened to the music during their takes; it was immediately part of the film’s DNA. Even the signs guiding our crew members to the set revealed our inspiration “Heima.” During filming, I sent Jónsi a photo of one of the signs. He wrote back with characteristic enthusiasm. On our last day of shooting in April, I contacted Jónsi again and asked him if he was interested in scoring the film. I sent him a copy of the script, and a Quicktime of one of the scenes. The story affected him. He’d already begun composing new music for the film when he arrived from Iceland with his toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas.

His first theme for the movie fit perfectly. Within a week, Jónsi had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we’d hoped for. In his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. Over the course of several visits to Los Angeles, Jónsi sculpted and orchestrated a soundscape with elements I’d never had in a movie before: bells, strings, cymbals, toy pianos, even melodies played through a small Dictaphone. The instinct that began the movie had come full circle. On a warm fall night in October, we finished. The e-mail he sent last night before boarding the plane back to his home in Iceland says it all: “It was such a blast.” And so it was. Here, with thanks from an inspired director, and special gratitude to Alex Somers, who helped shine it through a prism of love and wonder, is Jónsi’s first score for film. This is his music for “We Bought A Zoo.”

Cameron Crowe
October 2011

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Nov 15, 2011

Exclusive Debut: We Bought A Zoo Theatrical U.S. Poster

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We are very pleased to debut a brand new U.S. poster for We Bought A Zoo in glorious high resolutionWe really hope you like it!

Tell us what you think! Do you like the new poster?

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Nov 8, 2011

Cameron Gets Out Of His House

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Photo by Neal Preston/20th Century Fox

The NY Times chats with Cameron about life after Elizabethtown, Tom Cruise and the genesis of We Bought A Zoo. You can read Leah Rozen’s entire article/interview over at the NY Times, but here’s a few choice excerpts:

Mr. Cruise, who had starred in the hugely successful “Jerry Maguire” (1996) and “Vanilla Sky” (2001) for Mr. Crowe, felt that it was time for his friend Mr. Crowe to emerge from behind the yellow legal tablets on which he composes his first drafts in longhand. “I was deep in the writing cave,” Mr. Crowe recalled, “and he said: ‘Hey man, you need to be directing. You’re forgetting the joy, the adrenaline.’ He’s, like, ‘Let’s go for a drive.’ ”

The drive took them to the nearby set in Los Angeles of “Knocked Up,” where the writer and director Judd Apatow was trading punch lines with Seth Rogen and the film crew. Mr. Cruise introduced Mr. Crowe to Mr. Apatow, who joked that he’d been stealing for years from “Say Anything…,” the sharp-witted teen comedy that first established Mr. Crowe as a director in 1989.

“Cruise sidles up to me and goes: ‘See? Get out of your house, man, it’s fun,’ ” Mr. Crowe said. “And that’s when it felt like, yeah, it’s time to direct again.”

Whatever the fate of “Zoo,” will Mr. Crowe wait as long again before making his next film? “Not anymore, baby,” he said exuberantly. He said he hopes to begin shooting in March on a new comedy that he had finished writing two days earlier, even as he was making final tweaks on “Zoo.” And he has another movie he intends to make right after that.

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Nov 7, 2011

We Bought A Zoo – International Trailer

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Here’s the international trailer for We Bought A Zoo. You’ll notice some additional scenes that were not in the U.S. trailer. WBAZ arrives in theaters on December 23, 2011.

Share your thoughts on the trailer. 

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Nov 4, 2011

We Bought A Zoo Soundtrack

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We’ve got the details for the We Bought A Zoo soundtrack courtesy of jónsi’s official site.

The soundtrack that comprises of over 30 minutes of brand new music from jónsi – the soundtrack comprises of two new songs from jónsi: “ævin endar” (life ends) & “snærisendar” (end of a rope) as well as nine shorter “theme” pieces, plus reimagining’s of songs from jónsi’s debut solo album “go”. the soundtrack also includes “hopipolla” by sigur rós.

Here is some words about the soundtrack recording process:

“[jónsi] arrived from iceland with a toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas,” says cameron. “within a week, [he] had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we’d hoped for. in his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. the instinct that made the movie come full circle.”

cameron’s relationship with jónsi and sigur rós goes back almost as far as the band’s position in the international spotlight, to 2001 and the director’s much-noticed inclusion of three of the band’s songs in the hugely successful tom cruise film ‘vanilla sky’. cameron has long heralded the band and their filmwork, to the extent that the secret project name for we bought a zoo was, in fact, ‘heima’ in honor of the band’s 2007 tour film.

“early on it was obvious that [sigur rós’] music would have a profound effect on the making of we bought a zoo,” says cameron. “in preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of sigur rós’ transcendent documentary, ‘heima’.”
even ahead of getting jónsi on board as composer, we bought a zoo was broadly ‘temped’ with jónsi’ solo material. it’s an open secret that cameron would encourage matt damon, scarlett johansson and the other actors on the movie to listen to specific songs by the band to create the right energy for a scene.

“the actors listened to the music during their takes; it quickly became part of the film’s dna,” says the director.

perhaps even more potent is the fact that the closing scene of we bought a zoo is a cinematic homage to a specific moment in ‘heima’ when gleeful crowds stream in a sigur rós show in the far north of iceland or, in this case, the newly opened zoo.

among the original score and new songs is ‘gathering stories’, a song co-written by jónsi and cameron, in something of a collaborative first for the notoriously private icelander. orchestral arrangements on the score have been handled by previous jónsi working partner, and ‘reader’ soundtrack composer, nico muhly, who brings his quixotic genius to the string and brass sections.

here is the tracklisting for the soundtrack:

  • why not?
  • ævin endar – jónsi *new track
  • boy lilikoi – jónsi
  • sun
  • brambles
  • sinking friendships – jónsi
  • we bought a zoo
  • hoppipolla – sigur rós
  • snærisendar
  • sink ships
  • go do – jónsi
  • whole made of pieces
  • humming
  • first day
  • gathering stories – jónsi *new track

The soundtrack will be out on December 13th. The movie hits theaters on December 23rd.

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Nov 3, 2011

Favorite Rock Docs

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Cameron and the members of Pearl Jam shared their favorite rock documentaries with Reuters as part of the Pearl Jam Twenty press at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. Here’s their picks:

Cameron Crowe
Can I do two? Okay, Gimme Shelter and Don’t Look Back. Gimme Shelter, because it’s just amazing, on-the-fly film-making and Don’t Look Back because it just captures the white-hot heat of somebody like Bob Dylan, who’s exploding and there are cameras and microphones everywhere.

Eddie Vedder
The Kids are Alright and Last Waltz. It reminded of the time I got caught smoking pot and got grounded for a week in the summer. And it wasn’t that bad, because all I did was listen to Last Waltz for 18 hours a day.

Matt Cameron
I saw Jimi plays Berkley and Jimi Hendrix (film). Those two films kind of blew my mind as a teen. And I also remember watching Freddie and his friends, about Freddie Mercury’s home life. It had nothing to do with the band Queen, just how Mercury was as a person. It was mind-blowingly cool.

Jeff Ament
There was a documentary that came out three or four years ago called American Hardcore. That was sort of the music that I learned to play and to see the footage of some of the Detroit bands and the Boston bands was pretty amazing.

Stone Gossard
Spinal Tap has got to be in there too. It really is something that affected me hugely.

Mike McCready
I would say one life changing film was Woodstock. My first concept of a rock singer ever was probably Roger Daltrey at Woodstock doing his thing. And Hendrix, of course his version of The Star Spangled Banner was the one that went into my soul and I grabbed it, grabbed it and I ran with it.

Please chime in! What are your favorite rock documentaries?

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Nov 1, 2011

David Crosby: Remember My Name-Out Now on DVD/Blu-ray & Digital!


  • Almost Famous- Paramount+
  • Aloha- Starz, DirecTV
  • David Crosby- Starz, DirecTV
  • E-Town- FUBO
  • Fast Times- TUBI
  • Jerry Maguire- Netflix
  • Say Anything...- FUBO,Paramount+,MGM+
  • Singles- Vudu
  • Vanilla Sky- Prime Video,Pluto TV
  • We Bought A Zoo- Disney+