Almost Famous – NY Post
Even more ‘Famous’
Cameron Crowe, who returns with two eagerly anticipated new films in 2011 after a six-year absence, is best known these days for one of the most beloved movies released so far this century, “Almost Famous.” Debuting on Blu-ray exclusively at Best Buy today in its extended “Untitled Bootleg” cut, “Almost Famous” was a box-office disappointment on release in 2000, but it’s had a cultural resonance that built a loyal following ever since.
Crowe’s autobiographical tale of a teen rock fan who hits the road with the band Stillwater (an amalgam of the Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin) in 1973 to write a Rolling Stone cover story found a huge, appreciative audience on DVD and TV. Already a favorite of critics, “Almost Famous” appeared on dozens of lists of the best films of the decade.
“It’s the one movie I’ve done that I hear about the most,” Crowe tells The Post. “Wherever I am, it seems, somebody comes up and says something about ‘Almost Famous.’ ”
And while the film has an avid following among millennials (it’s long been my daughter Xan’s favorite) it has many older fans as well.
“Often it’s a button-down business type who looks like somebody’s accountant uncle, and they take you aside and say wistfully, ‘I followed Deep Purple to 25 cities in the early ’70s. ‘Almost Famous’ is my life,” says Crowe, 53. “And we have a moment talking about music, and vinyl. It’s the reason I made the movie.”
At 15, Crowe was the youngest writer in the history of Rolling Stone and went on to adapt his book “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” for a 1982 movie. After that, he took up directing with the cult-favorites “Say Anything . . .” (1989) and “Singles” (1992). He says he was allowed to make such a personal movie as “Almost Famous” because of the immense success of “Jerry Maguire,” which grossed $153 million in the US and was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture.
“We had the commercial capital, thanks to DreamWorks, to make the movie with all the love and time to get it pretty right,” Crowe recalls. “Big props to the cast, too, who really felt the movie as we were making it. Kate Hudson dancing on that arena floor will always be one of the favorite things I was very lucky enough to be behind the camera and watch happen. Movies tend to communicate the spirit of the people who made it, maybe that’s why it lasted.”
Hudson, as a “Band-Aid” (she disdains the term “groupie”) named Penny Lane, received one of the film’s five Oscar nominations. It won only for Crowe’s original screenplay.
Crowe calls the 162-minute “Untitled” version, which adds 40 minutes and was previously available on DVD, “the full movie. The theatrical cut of ‘Almost Famous’ was honed through public screenings. On the big screen, I think the cross-country tour was a little exhausting for some people (just like life) . . . but for home viewing, ‘Untitled’ is made for you to put it on pause, grab a beer, and then back on the road to visit the next city.
“Also there are some sub-plots in the longer version that I do miss in the theatrical version — for example Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) has a secret coke problem and other little side-stories that I will always love. Either version is there for whatever mood you’re in, or how long you want to tour with Stillwater.”
Crowe rebounded commercially in 2001 with “Vanilla Sky,” a reunion with “Jerry Maguire” star Tom Cruise that took in $100 million in North America despite mixed reviews. But another personal film, “Elizabethtown” (2005) earned Crowe the worst notices of his career and tanked at the box office.
“Elizabethtown,” Crowe says, “was a big, open-hearted movie that worked for some people, maybe not for others. But for me it will always be about the final road trip, and the music of My Morning Jacket and Tom Petty and Ryan Adams. Also it was a chance to film in Kentucky and pay a little tribute to my Dad, who grew up there.”
After a planned Ben Stiller-Reese Witherspoon comedy failed to go before the cameras a couple of years ago, Crowe is scheduled to have a pair of films out at the end of the year, including the documentary “Pearl Jam Twenty.”
Crowe calls it “our equal-part tribute to Bob Dylan’s ‘Don’t Look Back’ and The Who’s ‘The Kids Are Alright.’ When I first moved to Seattle in the mid-’80s, that now-hallowed music scene was starting to come together and I was fortunate to have a front-row seat to the formation and the early shows of Pearl Jam. We gave them jobs on ‘Singles’ to keep the band afloat.
“They became good friends of mine, and about 10 years ago we started talking about a project that would use all the archival stuff the band had never shown to the public. The time finally came to tell that story. Jeff Ament, the bassist and creative architect of the band in many ways, said to me, ‘I’m expecting to learn things about our little band that I never knew. I hope it’s a little bit like group therapy.’ ”
Currently, Crowe is shooting “We Bought a Zoo,” starring Matt Damon as a widowed father who buys a dilapidated zoo, planned for a Christmas release.
Crowe e-mails that it’s “probably closest to ‘Almost Famous’ or ‘Jerry Maguire’ in the mix of comedy and drama. It’s a fun movie with a smokin’ cast, and I think everybody is bringing something new to it. We’re almost two weeks in, and every day has been a blast. It’s also a little bit of a tribute to the great Bill Forsyth comedy, ‘Local Hero.’ I’m really excited . . . tomorrow Peter Riegert, the star of that movie, is playing a juicy part with Matt Damon. Should be good.”
Courtesy of the NY Post – Lou Lumenick – January 29, 2011