Tag Archives: Entertainment Weekly

EW’s First Look at Roadies

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Luke Wilson and Carla Gugino. Photo by Katie Yu and courtesy of Showtime.

Roadies is featured in Entertainment Weekly‘s latest “First Look” issue. The preview includes a Q & A with Cameron. Here’s an excerpt, for the entire article, check out the story over at EW. 

Roadies

Almost Famous writer-director Cameron Crowe is going behind the music again – this time with a TV series starring Luke Wilson, Carla Gugino, and Imogen Poots as the support staff for a touring rock band.

In Almost Famous you shined a spotlight on a kid coming of age on the road, following around a rising band. Now you’re shining the spotlight on the people who shine the spotlights on the band. What intrigued you about that side of the business?

I hadn’t seen their stories told….I always used to see these pictures – or when we’d film something – where Elton John would come down the hallway of the Forum on his way to the stage, and some poor [stagehand] would be moving a cart, and he’d see the camera and Elton coming and he’d be like [mimics someone trying to get out of the frame]. The camera would just move past him, and I was like, No – let’s do the show where the camera’s on this guy that’s against the wall. Let Elton John go. We want to know his world. That’s kind of the show.

How long have you had the idea for Roadies?

It happened about eight years ago. J.J. [Abrams, an exec producer alongside My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holtzman and Crowe] and I both came up at the same time working with Jim Brooks, so we became friends. And then one time we just started pitching. He said, “I went to this show, and I looked up, and I saw this girl on a rigging tower, and I just wondered, “What is her world like?” And I was like, “Well, I’ll tell you what her world is like,” and he’s like, “You know, this is your show.” I said, “Wow, okay.” We never see the band, we never hear the band. It’s about the people. It’s about that girl and those people that disappear when the lights go down.”

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J.J. Abrams, Luke Wilson and Cameron on the set of Roadies. Photo by Katie Yu and courtesy of Showtime.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly – Dan Snierson – January 8/15, 2016

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Jan 5, 2016

Archives: Favorite Soundtracks

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Happy Friday! Cameron shared a few of his favorite soundtracks with Entertainment Weekly back in 2001. It’s great to see the Trouble Man mention, especially with the recent 40th Anniversary release.

Read the rest of this post

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Aug 2, 2013

EW: Fall Preview – We Bought A Zoo + New Hi Res Still

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Entertainment Weekly profiles We Bought A Zoo in the their annual Fall Movie Preview issue. Above, you’ll also find a brand new high resolution still from the film featuring Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) and Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson). Here’s what EW had to say:

We Bought A Zoo
Starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church
Directed by Cameron Crowe

To persuade Matt Damon to play We Bought A Zoo‘s Benjamin Mee — a real-life London newspaper columnist who moved his family to a decrepit rural zoo and, after the death of his wife from cancer, worked to reopen it — director Cameron Crowe visited the actor on the Texas set of last year’s True Grit with a care package. ”I’m going to give away my age because I would call it a mixtape even though it was all on a computer,” says Damon of the gift, which Crowe assembled to evoke the mood of the film he wanted to make. ”There was lots of Eddie Vedder and Neil Young. I downloaded it, and the day after I got home, I went for a long run in Central Park and listened to all 15 songs. At the end of that run I was like, ‘Well, that’s a feeling I really like.”’ Scarlett Johansson plays a zoo worker who helps Mee cope with his wife’s death. (Dec. 23) —DK

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Aug 17, 2011

EW First Look: Pearl Jam Twenty

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Entertainment Weekly has a small feature on Pearl Jam Twenty in their latest issue (#1160 dated June 24, 2011), which just hit the newsstands. They shared the above picture (essentially a behind the scenes image that is not in the documentary) and had this to say:

Cameron Crowe Directs Pearl Jam Doc

It’s been nearly 20 years since Crowe first put the members of Pearl Jam on the big screen as a fictional Seattle band in Singles. Now, in the documentary Pearl Jam Twenty (due this Fall), he’s taking a look at the band’s real-life accomplishments in their two decades together. Crowe (left, with frontman Eddie Vedder) tells EW, “People who’ve seen the movie tend to say one of two things: (a) When can I see the band play live again? or (b) Did we really look like that in the ’90s? – Jason Adams

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Jun 17, 2011

Dobler Army + Say Anything…Reflections

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Hopefully you got your 20th Anniversary edition of Say Anything… on Blu-ray or DVD. A bunch of stories hit the Internet to celebrate and I thought I would share them with you.

  • As you can see, an army of Lloyd Doblers took over New York to promote the release. There’s a nice recap over at Big Picture, Big Sound.
  • A look back at Say Anything… with Cameron was in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly and is now in the Press Section. It’s definitely worth a read.
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Nov 3, 2009

Holiday Leftovers

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I hope everyone had a happy holiday and a safe new year. Here’s a roundup for news tidbits from the past few weeks or so. More love from Entertainment Weekly on their Top 1000 of the past 25 years in a few categories.

In the 25 Best Soundtracks Since ‘83Almost Famous lands at #23, while Singles was ranked #13.

For the 25 All Time Best High School Movies, we had two Crowe related films make the cut:

  • 11.Say Anything…
Go on: Hoist that boom box above your head and turn up ‘’In Your Eyes.’’ Stand motionless with a fixed expression of unrequited but determined love. And watch Cameron Crowe’s ode to young passion, which made John Cusack the thinking teen’s heartthrob and should have done the same for Ione Skye. If the postgraduation romance between an earnest kickboxer and a sheltered valedictorian doesn’t win you over, repeat steps one and two and listen closer. —Hannah Tucker
  • 2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
 – When screenwriter Cameron Crowe went undercover to observe the species Teenagerus americanus, he returned with more than the usual grab-bag of anecdotes about horny, apple-pie-humping guys and the popularity-obsessed girls who must fight them off with a stick. He returned with 24-karat truth. To watch Fast Times today is to know exactly what it felt like to be fixated on sex, drugs, and rock & roll in Southern California circa 1982. It also launched careers and dished out still-relevant life lessons: Jennifer Jason Leigh (relax your throat muscles when fellating a carrot), Phoebe Cates (always knock before entering a bathroom), and Judge Reinhold (see above). And Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli, with his checkerboard Vans and bong-hit grin, was a geyser of catchphrases (‘’Aloha, Mr. Hand!’’). The film never strains for coming-of-age treacle. Maybe that’s why it still feels so…right. Especially Damone’s sage advice: ‘’When it comes down to making out, whenever possible put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.’’ —Chris Nashawaty

 

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Jan 6, 2009

EW’s Top 50 High School Movies Ever

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In the September 15th issue, Entertainment Weekly picks their Top 50 High School Movies Ever and two of Cameron’s films make the grade:

#2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

When screenwriter Cameron Crowe went undercover to observe the species Teenagerus americanus, he returned with more than the usual grab-bag of anecdotes about horny, apple-pie-humping guys and the popularity-obsessed girls who must fight them off with a stick. He returned with 24-karat truth. To watch Fast Times today is to know exactly what it felt like to be fixated on sex, drugs, and rock & roll in Southern California circa 1982. It also launched careers and dished out still-relevant life lessons: Jennifer Jason Leigh (relax your throat muscles when fellating a carrot), Phoebe Cates (always knock before entering a bathroom), and Judge Reinhold (see above). And Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli, with his checkerboard Vans and bong-hit grin, was a geyser of catchphrases (‘’Aloha, Mr. Hand!’’). The film never strains for coming-of-age treacle. Maybe that’s why it still feels so…right. Especially Damone’s sage advice: ‘’When it comes down to making out, whenever possible put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV. – Chris Nashawaty

#11. Say Anything (1989)

Go on: Hoist that boom box above your head and turn up ‘’In Your Eyes.’’ Stand motionless with a fixed expression of unrequited but determined love. And watch Cameron Crowe’s ode to young passion, which made John Cusack the thinking teen’s heartthrob and should have done the same for Ione Skye. If the postgraduation romance between an earnest kickboxer and a sheltered valedictorian doesn’t win you over, repeat steps one and two and listen closer. — Hannah Tucker

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Oct 4, 2006

EW’s 100 Best Soundtracks

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The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly declares its 100 Best Soundtracks of All Time. Singles checks in at #66 with the following comments:

Cameron’s Crowe’s ode to grunge-flecked Seattle was sweet and free-spirited. Not so its intense soundtrack, on which Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees rouse themselves to musical high points. Singles is both a terrific period-piece sampler and a now poignant flashback to that fleeting moment when hirsute guys in flannel ruled the world.

Crowe also picks some of his favorite soundtracks as well:

Cameron Crowe’s Faves

Like John Cusack in Say Anything…, Cameron Crowe has been holding up a boom box to the world, with his soundtracks for Singles, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous. EW asked the director of the upcoming Vanilla Sky to name some of favorite from his own collection.

  • The Graduate (1967) – Can a movie and its music work any better than this?
  • Friends (1971) – The great forgotten Elton John album is one of his best.
  • The Strawberry Statement (1970) – In the post-Woodstock haze came this great and odd combination of Thunderclap Newman, Neil Young, and classical music.
  • Over the Edge (1979) – The movie is a gem of a suburban teen classic, and so is the Van Halen and Cheap Trick-laden soundtrack.
  • Trouble Man (1972) – Marvin Gaye called this his finest album. It’s an intoxicating, druggy thing of beauty. Oddly, the film barely used the music. Here’s the challenge: Someone make the movie that truly deserves this music.
  • Percy (1971) – The Kinks composed this rock baroque soundtrack after their success with “Lola.” The movie, by the way, is about a penis.
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Oct 12, 2001

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+