Vanilla Sky – Entertainment Today

Music in the Sky

Cameron Crowe talks about how he corralled Paul McCartney for his new film

Music plays an awfully big role in Vanilla Sky. But then again, why wouldn’t it? The psychological pop puzzlebox, starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz, is the follow-up to Cameron Crowe’s Oscar-nominated Almost Famous, his semi-autobiographical story of a rock-obsessed 15-year-old and his life-changing experience on the road with a band. Crowe’s other films, from Singles to Jerry Maguire, have been equally immersed in music; there’s a specificity with which he wields the tunes he chooses for inclusion.

But Vanilla Sky found Crowe—who often works on the set and directs scenes with music blasting, everything from David Bowie and Todd Rundgren to Radiohead, U2 and Looper—breaking some bold new ground. For the movie he went to Paul McCartney to see if the legendary ex-Beatle would be interested in contributing a song to the film. And how did that work out? Well, it wasn’t too hard, to hear Crowe tell it.

“Danny Bramson, who I work with on the music said, ‘I made some calls and Paul’s going to be in L.A. doing his album and maybe we can get him to come to edit room one day, probably June 9,’” relates Crowe. “I said, ‘Yeah right.’ I didn’t believe it nor did I tell anyone in our editing room that it would happen. …Sure enough, that day comes and Paul shows up. And I actually got a sense of what it was like to be Paul — or not to be him but see the world as he sees it because I was sort of walking a little bit ahead of him and saw everybody turn.” Here Crowe pauses for effect. “And look… and see Paul McFuckingCartney. And believe me, there is a unique look that happens on people’s faces that he sees every day but I’d never seen on these people before.”

The collaboration was born from a “new project” swap. “We showed him 40 minutes of the movie,” says Crowe. “Then he said, ‘That’s great, that’s great, you showed us yours, let us show you ours. Come over to the studio and I’ll play you some of my new album.’ So we’re off, and he’s got his windows down in full-on L.A. traffic, we’re driving across town and I’m calling my wife from car, telling her that we’re following Paul McCartney.”

“He played us all these songs, which was great, and he said, ‘Let me know if any of these interest you,’ and they all sounded spirited and cool for the movie,” says Crowe. [But] I kind of nervously said, ‘You know, if you’re ever moved to write a new song that’s in the mode of a folk song—and Danny’s looking at me like (he makes an incredulous face)—that would be cool, because the movie’s about sweet and sour and the little things in life that you’ve got to treasure and not take for granted.’”

“That was on a Tuesday,” Crowe continues. “On Saturday, Danny’s cell phone rings, and: ‘Hey, it’s Paul McCartney. Listen, get to know me a little bit, because I’m the kind of guy that if you ask me to do something I might just come through for you. I’ve written a new song called “Vanilla Sky” and if you don’t like it I’ll just call it “Vanilla Envelope.” Do you want to come over and hear it?’ We’re like… (Crowe smacks his head). So we went over to the studio, he played it, and it was a folk song, exactly what I’d asked for. He added a metaphor of the banquet of life and it was the perfect thing to put at the end of the movie to let people calm down and think about what’s just happened. So this is one of the great gifts of Vanilla Sky.”

Courtesy of Entertainment Today – Brent Simon – December 21, 2001