Latest news with #BeaconTheater
ABC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
U2 singer Bono lays his life bare in one-man stage show Stories of Surrender
"All this saving the world, is it really service, duty, righteous anger, or is it just a childlike desire to be at the centre of the action?" Bono wonders backstage at his sold-out, one-man show at New York's Beacon Theater in 2023. "Desire and virtue is a whole dance." What: U2 singer Bono lays bare his life and career in a one-man stage show, part spoken-word and part solo music performance. Starring: Bono Director: Andrew Dominik Where: Streaming now on Apple TV+ Likely to make you feel: Like falling in love with U2 again — if you're a fan Across a 45-year career as a globe-straddling superstar and activist, the U2 singer has danced the fine line between rock 'n' roll icon and enduring public nuisance. He's been both the voice of one of the biggest bands of the late 20th-century and — to some, at least — a blowhard palling around with celebrities and world leaders. But as the new movie Bono: Stories of Surrender shows, there's a complicated, endearingly contradictory man behind the often-outsized public profile; one whose idealism is frequently troubled by self-doubt, and whose pursuit of stardom stems from a past steeped in loss. Filmed over several nights of his New York residency, Stories of Surrender vividly captures Bono's one-man adaptation of his best-selling 2022 memoir, Surrender, translating the book's revealing candour to the stage with the singer's typically self-reflexive humour. As he quipped to Jimmy Kimmel recently: "I play an aging rock star on a massive ego trip." There are no mirror-balls or giant lemons or jumbotrons broadcasting prank calls to The White House, just a starkly lit stage and a few empty pieces of furniture to stand in for key figures in his life — including the rest of U2, who are nowhere to be found. It begins, as many such stories do, with a health scare that prompts a crisis of faith and life evaluation. "How did I get here?" Bono asks, echoing the words of his contemporary David Byrne, after an operation on his "eccentric" heart in 2016. Still, it's hardly a sombre opening: the star is in full-tilt carnival-barker mode, part preacher, part game-show host, a pair of wraparound shades short of his Zoo TV MacPhisto. Bono's brand of ironic bravado, in which every sincere moment is inevitably chased by a self-deprecating shot, will do little to convince detractors who regard him as the epitome of anti-cool. For U2 fans, however, it's a wonderful reminder of just how adept he is with a pithy turn of phrase or ready-made pop graffiti — he's perhaps the only songwriter to land the line "you're turning tricks with your crucifix" on a major motion picture soundtrack aimed at children. Much of Bono's humour appears to originate from his late father, Bob Hewson, a man who looms over the show despite appearing only as an empty chair and a glass of Black Bush whiskey. Playing both father and son, Bono recreates infrequent pub meetings with his Da, who remains hilariously unimpressed with his kid's success (labelling him "a baritone who thinks he's a tenor"), nor his phone calls from Pavarotti (Bono's impression of the Italian opera giant is among the film's funniest moments). Their relationship was complex. After a 14-year-old Bono lost his mother, who collapsed at his grandfather's funeral ("It sounds almost too Irish, I know," he jokes), his father never spoke of her again. Her death haunted almost every aspect of the rocker's life and career. At the very same time, he would meet his future wife, Ali, and the musicians — The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr, and Adam Clayton — with whom he'd rocket to mulleted 80s stardom. The stories of U2's early adventures are invariably charming, as the teenage band fumbles about to land on their signature sound — at one point Bono urging The Edge to make his guitar "sound like an electric drill into the ear". It's Bono's reckoning with fame that proves to be the real revelation, however, as he and his band mates wrestle with their spiritual beliefs in the wake of new-found celebrity. "Fame is currency," Bono reasons. "You wouldn't need charity if the world was just, so — get the cheque." If the humanitarian act borders on Vegas schtick, Bono is the first to admit it. "I am an over-paid, over-regarded, over-rewarded, over-fed rock 'n' roll star," he says in voiceover, commenting on the action. And whenever the self-therapy pauses for a burst of music, it's hard to resist those soaring pipes, still stirring after all these years and audible wear and tear. 'With Or Without You', delivered here in thorny tribute to his wife, remains as sad and gorgeous as ever, while 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' takes on a new, ghostly power in a stripped back, slowed down performance. Meanwhile, U2's 1988 hit 'Desire' emerges as both a pivotal point in the band's career and a key text in Bono's life, tapping into the tension between the sacred and the profane that the band would toy with on 90s highlights Achtung Baby and Zooropa. "For love or money, money, money," Bono sings, throwing theatrical shapes and channelling late-period Elvis. Even 'Beautiful Day' — arguably the beginning of U2's long decline into musical irrelevance — becomes a moving elegy for the dead, as Bono teases out the melancholy beneath the song's radio-friendly chorus. It's a lovely moment, a tribute to those we've lost and to all the strange little things that somehow keep us going along the way. Haters will burn with renewed fire, but if you've ever had a soft spot for U2, Stories of Surrender may just make you fall in love with them all over again.
Time Out
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Bono: Stories of Surrender
However you feel about Bono before seeing this slick, souped-up 'audience with' doc will probably be reinforced by the time the credits roll. If you love him, the doc will brighten his messianic glow. If you loathe him, you'll easily find reasons to throw tomatoes. If you couldn't care less about the pint-sized Irish rocker and activist, it's hard to imagine why you'd be watching it in the first place. Whether it's Bono's enormous success or his attempts to make a difference in the world (or most likely a mix of the two), Bono inspires strong reactions, and you can feel him here trying to bring the whole enterprise of his life a little closer to Earth. He called on Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly) to film his one-man show at New York's Beacon Theater in 2023, perhaps attracted by the New Zealand filmmaker's work with Nick Cave. It's a performance that's self-consciously stripped back, with just a few chairs and a table on stage, with Bono recounting stories of his childhood, mother, father, wife and band mates and regularly breaking into song, with renditions here of hits including 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'Pride (In the Name of Love)'. Dominik layers on a silvery black-and-white glamour, delivering a multi-angle magic act that lends a constant sense of movement and energy to the film. This good-natured hagiography isn't anywhere near free of pomposity The most endearing and interesting stretches of the film feature Bono discussing his parents. His mother Iris died when he was a young teen after collapsing at her own father's funeral, and her name was barely spoken again by his father Brendan. Here, Bono regrets his own role in 'disappearing' her memory. He recalls his opera-loving father's envy of him as he became successful and also his quiet pride, but he regrets that he was only able to see him as a friend after his death from cancer in 2001. Bono treads lightly on his humanitarian work. He doesn't avoid it entirely and jokes that 'hypocrites get a bad rap', the message being that at least he's given it a shot. There might be mentions of Pavarotti and Princess Di but the name-dropping is kept to a minimum and if there were any mentions of popes or Nelson Mandela, I missed them. This good-natured hagiography isn't anywhere near free of pomposity, but even Bono seems to know when it's best just to keep quiet and move on.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Bono: Stories Of Surrender': On Irish Fathers & Sons, Processing Family Tragedy & How A Need To Be Heard Propelled A Dublin Kid To Become One Of The World's Biggest Rock Stars
Bono laid bare his transformation from Dublin lad Paul Hewson into a global rock star and human rights crusader in his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. Now, premiering at Cannes, comes the Andrew Dominik-directed documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender. Culled from the U2 frontman's 2023 one-man show at New York's Beacon Theater, Bono weaves performances of his best-known hit songs into a tale of a youngster suffering the shocking loss of his mother and trying in vain to get the needed acknowledgment from a grieving father who withdrew and never mentioned his dead wife in their Dublin home. The need to fill the void and to be seen and heard led to a miracle. In the span of a week, the 16-year-old Bono found the family that would sustain him. In short order, he fell in love with future wife Ali, and found his bandmates Dave Evans (The Edge), Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton. The band they formed, U2, would go on to become one of the biggest in history, selling 170 million albums worldwide and winning a record-breaking 22 Grammys. More from Deadline Scarlett Johansson On Why The Script For Her Directorial Debut 'Eleanor The Great' Made Her Cry: 'It's About Forgiveness' – Cannes Cover Story As Tom Cruise Brings 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' To Cannes, All Five Franchise Directors Look Back At The Wild Ride 'Left-Handed Girl' Review: Producer/Co-Writer Sean Baker's First Post-Oscar Film Follows Taiwanese Family's Secrets & Lies - Cannes Film Festival Bono's lifelong activism began early too. In 1983, U2 released the album War, and the polemically charged song 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' about the futility of violence with occupying British forces in Ireland. Then, in 1985, they answered pal Bob Geldof's call to perform at Live Aid, which raised hundreds of millions to feed starving refugees in Ethiopia. Told that the $250 million raised was comparable to the interest payments starving third world countries were paying to superpower debtor nations, Bono and friends pushed those nations to wipe the debts. The same passion toward wiping out HIV in Africa prompted governments around the world to provide billions of dollars toward the cause. RELATED: Bono: Stories of Surrender begins with the singer recalling when a congenital heart condition very nearly killed him in 2016, then expands into an intimate and moving tale of father-son dynamics. Bono came to terms with his chilly relationship with his father through the performances at the Beacon, and the documentary's climax reveals a great gift Bono received from the prickly fellow he still calls The Da. The film is the latest move in a long and innovative alliance between Bono and Apple, first with Steve Jobs and later his CEO successor Tim Cook. It began with Bono convincing Jobs to issue an iPod pre-loaded with U2's music. The relationship took a controversial turn — with an apology from Bono — when the singer crashed the catalogs of Apple Music iTunes customers with free copies of the U2 album Songs of Innocence, whether they wanted it or not. And now, the relationship continues as the documentary not only will screen on Apple TV+ after Cannes in 2D but a spectacularly immersive version will be available for owners of the Apple Vision Pro. Viewing the film through that device reveals a uniquely close and personal experience, complete with Bono's own drawings that sprout up in the wide frame. Apple pulled out all the stops here, and the technology places the viewer right up there onstage alongside Bono, close enough to see the faint scar in his chest where the heart surgeon saved his life. Here, Bono discusses why he felt this was the right vehicle for telling his story and why, after U2 christened The Sphere in Las Vegas with sensory overload-level performances, it was important to him to help push the envelope on a more intimate technology that the Vision Pro promises. Mostly, though, this is a discussion about Irish families, and fathers and their sons. DEADLINE: BONO: Apart from the reward that they offer us in terms of good weather if you're Irish, what I love about the French is their love of cinema. It's the highest art, in the French public's mind. The Cannes Film Festival became this phenomenon, formed because the Venice Film Festival had been taken over by Mussolini and his German mate with the funny Charlie Chaplin mustache. They were getting to choose who won the big prize in Venice. So the French said in 1939, 'We're going to replace the film festival in Italy, which has been taken over by the fascists, and we are going to have a free film festival.' They didn't get to do it until after the war, but this was an amazing idea of freedom of expression. RELATED: Full List Of Cannes Palme d'Or Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery It's always a wonder to see this Oscars on the sea, the Palme d'Or. I remember Penelope Cruz winning the best actress. There was a whole bunch of people around in a busy restaurant. She walked in and as I was trying to get out of the table, she just stood up on the chair and stood up on the table and walked down it, sat down and said, 'So what are you drinking?' And the whole of France is at her feet. … I'm very excited about Europe, at the moment. In America, you're going through some difficult times. DEADLINE: BONO: You're fighting with yourself, about the identity of America, and Europe feels somewhat abandoned. We have a land war on European territory, and it could spread. People are preparing for the thought that America might not be with us if this land war spreads, and Putin follows in the role of the Soviet Union and puts tanks in Czechoslovakia and just takes over. So this is a feeling for me, for Europe, that this is a time when Europe is going to draw together. At this festival, you're going to feel that. … I'm really proud this tiny little film about my little family and the early days of U2 is getting its outing in Europe. I want it to be embraced by America, and I think it will. I've had other incredibly encouraging words from friends and people like Sean Penn who were there giving advice. There's something poetic about it being in Cannes. DEADLINE: BONO: I will say, even I've gotten sick of the protagonist. It's that old line you fear most: 'Here's another great thing about me!' And no matter what you do, what you say about your flaws, your fault lines and all the blood and guts of the story, it can still come across as, 'Here's another great thing about me.' DEADLINE: BONO: I had to dig quite deep and just go for a family story. All families are little operas, some bigger than others. There's always the soap opera, and there's suds here. There are tenors; there's the figure of my father, which kind of dominates. And the band. People wouldn't be turning up to hear my story if it wasn't for them. Overall, as excruciating as it's been — and I'm glad it's over — this is a great close to it. To come from The Sphere to the intimacy of the Beacon is quite a shift. And this Vision Pro brings it back to an immersive experience. But intimacy is at the heart, I would say, of all of those projects. I tell my friends, 'Intimacy is the new punk rock.' If I'm going to do one of these memoirs, I'd better really go there. It shouldn't be the same approach others have taken. We performed in The Sphere, and that is what got me to Vision Pro. The core of this is, 'Can we make this radical intimacy?' Does that sound pretentious? Probably. DEADLINE: BONO: Well, there we go. Insecurity is your best security. I make this joke about Italians and Irish, and actually Jimmy Iovine told me it was true. He said, 'I was [my father's] son. I couldn't put a foot wrong. Every idea I ever had was the greatest idea ever.' His father just loved him and convinced him everything's possible; in an Italian [household], these are clichés. In my home, and it sounds like yours too, that's not how it worked. I was competitive with my father. That must've been annoying for everyone around us, especially him. And that's the reason for my singing, at the end of the film, becoming him, me becoming the tenor. 'You're a baritone who thinks he's a tenor,' my dad would say. And he was exactly right, it was an accurate description. So, becoming him at the end of the film, it was a big moment of release for me, my way of saying, 'Thank you for the voice that you gave me.' When he passed, something freed up in me, for sure. And something changed in my voice. But the thing was that playing him night after night, just the turn of his head [depicting conversations with him in the one-man show] … I always loved my father, but I started to really like him. And I started to realize his put-downs were much funnier than I, the rebellious teenager, had credited him for. … Being him, I just started to really like him, and he started making me laugh. I wish I'd gotten the jokes when I was younger. Tell me about your father for a second. DEADLINE: The Passion of the Christ Fruitvale Station BONO: I've been writing about grief for a while. And we have a song on Songs of Innocence called 'California,' and it goes something like, 'There's no end to grief. That's how we know there's no end to love.' You know you will never get over it, by the way. I'm here to deliver you the good and the bad of that. What was an icy, chilling feeling eventually over time gets replaced by this warm ache that you would miss, were it not there. Now, when I think of my father, I have a really beautiful warm feeling, and the same with my mother. But the laughter is also important to find, because I bet you and your father had some funny. … He comes from that [Irish] point of view. There's some funny sh*t. DEADLINE: BONO: Laughing about it is really important. And being there, as you say, for your own kids but not turning to stone. We start out that way, and then we have to dissolve and allow them to see the strength that comes from owning up to your vulnerabilities. That's what my father never got to. And now I can use words like stoicism, I can use words like heroic, and now I can feel guilty for being such a pain in the ass. But I think it would've been OK for him to say: 'I'm terrified. I don't know what to do. I've got two kids. I have no mother for you. I can't replace her.' There are other complications, but I'm free and just so grateful for my origin story, and I hope it's of any use to anybody. DEADLINE: BONO: That was [dad's] way of dealing with it. I've no resentment, but I don't think it's a good strategy. Because when you talk about somebody when they're gone, they stay alive. Otherwise, you actually lose memories. There were a few reasons for writing the book, but one was largely to explain myself to myself, but also to my family, and [create] a record of what was going on whilst they were alive. We try to get things out in the open in our house. We actually have a feisty table, but it's also a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. But about the disappearing of Iris: I almost wrote the book to retrieve memories of her. We lost — my brother Norman and I — so much, just removing her name from the conversation. You've got to talk about these people. I mean, I think you can overdo it, too, but no, [silence] was not the right strategy. But I do not hold that against my father, Bob, the Da. DEADLINE: BONO: Well, look, it's psychology 101, but yes, I ran away with the circus. There wasn't a family anymore. And what a circus it turned out to be. I married what I thought was the tightrope walker, the girl on the pony. She turned out to be the ringmaster. That's Ali. I was probably the tightrope walker. DEADLINE: Darkness on the Edge of Town BONO: I mean, Bruce gets married every night to his audience, so in that sense he is the greatest wedding singer ever, and they're the greatest wedding band. U2 are definitely weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs. Yeah, the wailing, this thing of singing. … We've a song called 'The Showman.' The opening lyric is, 'Baby's crying 'cause it's born to sing/Singers cry about everything/Still in the playground falling off a swing.' When I started out with U2, I wouldn't have called it singing exactly, either. I would've called it shouting, but it is a kind of wail, and part of it is that primal thing that we've been talking about, but part of it is just not being ignored. But there's something about singing. I was learning about singing from my father. This is not scientific, but he, I feel, bequeaths me in his passing an extra tone to my voice, and as I let go of all that resentment and rage, I changed. I just loosened up, and the voice loosened up. Singing is not just for entertainment. The blues, that's another thing that came out of wailing, you know? The Irish word for grief, it's called keening. You'll hear it in Africa. It's bloodcurdling, [occurring during] the loss of life. In Ireland, in our history, we've all seen it in the present day in exceptional situations, but it was part of the ritual. There's something about, you sing yourself out of your situation. You breathe. DEADLINE: BONO: The opening of the film is about breathing, right, and the fear I felt when I was on the operating table, I was having heart surgery, and I hallucinated. It was this guy from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but it turned out to be a very nice man called David Adams, a surgeon with a Texas accent, who saved my life. I think that I had no fear of the surgery or anything like that, but I remember the loss of air and feeling like my lungs were flooding or filling up. I'm a singer, so those lungs are really necessary, and that was the closest thing I came to losing my faith, as you were talking about earlier. It was the closest thing I'd had to panic, since I was a child. It wasn't about the heart surgery. I thought I was suffocating. DEADLINE: BONO: I think that's right at the root of this story, for sure. But we end the film at the Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest opera house in the world. It sounds like the most mad idea, 'By the way, it's all set in the Beacon, but for one scene we just need to get to Naples, because this would blow my father's mind. I'm going to become him, and I'll be the opera singer that he had inside of him, but we have to do it here. The pub we met at all the time is called the Sorrento Lounge in Finnegan's, and we need to finish in the bay of Sorrento. It's all going to make sense.' Andrew Dominik, of course, gets it totally, but the people at Apple … you would expect a very serious, puzzled look on their faces. They said: 'Yes. If this is that important to you, then we're doing this. We're in with you all the way.' It's preposterous, but finishing in Italy in one of the most sacred places of music, and the most beautiful thing happens. DEADLINE: BONO: That happened in Texas where U2 was playing in the '90s and I'd set up the spotlight to shine on him. This is his first time in the United States, in Texas, which is a whole other thing, more American than the Americans themselves. He comes and it's like the sound of 10 747s, the roar of the crowd in Texas. And in the bright point in the show, I go: 'Listen, I've got a person here today that means a lot to me. It's his first time in America and it's his first time in the state of Texas, and it is my father. And he's right over there.' And everyone turns around, they see the spotlight and my da. He shakes his fist. But afterwards he comes back[stage], and I can see he's a bit shaken. He shakes my hand and he says, 'You're very professional.' Probably the only compliment a former punk rock singer wants to hear, or the only compliment you don't want to hear, rather. But of course it's a whole other language, and it was beautiful. And the more we talk about this, I can see it touches you as it touches me for our personal reasons. The book was a love story to my missus in a way. But the film is a love story, to my mother, but it's different because I never fell out with my mother. She was taken away from me before I got to know her, or she me, but I fell in love with my father. Is that Italian or Irish enough for you? DEADLINE: BONO: I could never be an actor. The reason I wanted to work with Andrew Dominik was not just that he was a great painter of scenes and of story, but he was a great director of actors, and non-actors. His first film Chopper, that was Eric Bana, a comedian who had been on TV a bit. He takes that role and becomes the Eric Bana that we now know of. That film Chopper is the most like Andrew Dominik, meaning it's as serious and funny as he is, and the humor of it is bewitching. Andrew drove me mad, though some people say I was there already. Asking me to say goodbye to my father, five times in one day we did that scene … and I was like, 'I couldn't do this.' I was in bits. 'I do this five times?' And he goes, 'Yeah, the lens is a lie detector, Bono.' And I'm saying, 'Andrew, didn't Marlon Brando say he lied for a living?' 'Not on this set.' He knows what you think, in the lens, and you'd better be all there. That's why I couldn't be an actor, though for certain scenes it is great fun. My daughter Eve [Hewson] is an unbelievable actor, but in a funny way, when you're in U2, you've got all the bells and whistles, the big productions and fireworks going off in your head and in your heart when you're singing. DEADLINE: BONO: It's the operating theater, the table, but it's also the dining table in our house on Cedarwood Road in Dublin. Also, the chairs are the members of the band, and one of them's Ali. These are props. We've been on tour with 250 trucks, and now I'm down to four chairs. You could fit all the props in a station wagon. When my father offers his last words to me, which indeed were an expletive … I don't think he was telling me to f*ck off. I'm not ruling it out, but [I think it was directed at] the monkey on his back. But it's that table. The table. Just no matter where you are, a nice little cottage or Cedarwood Road, there's something about that kitchen table. That's where it all comes out. The funny, funny sh*t, or those arguments. I mean, talking about faith, Christmas morning in our place, that's when it really went off and we'd be at each other's throats. So much for Prince of Peace, right? Even Santa Claus would've got a thump. Always politics and religion, the two things you're not supposed to talk about. That's all we were interested in talking about. And Irish people. There was one other thing we were really interested in talking about, except we don't, and that is sex. DEADLINE: BONO: Following her career is a kind of an adventure in itself because you just never know where she's going to go next. Single mother, comedian, femme fatale. She can be big, and then small. Even her family, honestly, we have no clue where she's going next. When she takes [on a role], boom! — she's gone in there. Our son [Elijah] who's out in public, he's a guitar player and singer [in the band Inhaler] and an inhaler of life. He's got the internal mental discipline to be a good songwriter. I'm certainly proud when I see [Eve on screen]. She does this thing where she puts the evolution of her character all over her apartment, the bathroom wall, to find the face she's thinking about. Maybe this is normal, I don't know. And I saw her at her table for one of her characters and there was a picture of my mother, and I said, 'Oh, it's Iris.' She said, 'Yeah, her look and her vibe. I need some of it. So I have her there when I'm getting my makeup on every day.' Isn't that wild? DEADLINE: BONO: Apple have this new sonic innovation commitment to fidelity of sound. Sounds are becoming really important in movies, in people's home cinemas. The Vision Pro, it's a commitment. You're getting into a world, and there are extraordinary things I've seen through the Vision Pro. … We had this idea of, well, the camera can be onstage and walking around you. We couldn't light it as easy as we thought, but we successfully got the viewer on stage. I took out my drawings from the stage show for the filming, and they're not in the 2D Apple TV+ version of Stories of Surrender, but they are in Vision Pro. Those childlike drawings — no one would like to be able to draw as badly as me — but it's like a signature, a fingerprint. DEADLINE: BONO: It made it really playful. I know Apple are dying to make the Vision Pro more affordable and more democratic, but they're committed to innovation, they're committed to experimenting. They know not everyone can afford this, but they're still going for it, believing that some way down the line, it'll make financial sense for them. But the fact that they may have to wait a while is not putting them off. DEADLINE: BONO: I think my favorite film is Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. It just changed me, because it was this idea that angels would die to feel some of the ache and the pain of falling in love, because grief is the price we pay for love. The other one for me, growing up, was Peter Sellers and Being There, a genius meditation to me. Jim Sheridan is, to me, one of the great directors of all time. His first film was with Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot. That blew my mind. He'd come from theater. I said to him: 'How'd you do that? How did you know how to be on set with all these very technical things that were so very different than theater?' He said: 'Eh. I just walked up to the DP and when he said to me, 'How do I set this next shot up?' I said, 'You tell me. I'm here to learn.' I did the same with Daniel, the same with everybody.' He said, 'It's amazing, if you ask people what they think, they sometimes tell you.' Yeah, he's a psychological genius. His understanding of people, his understanding of great stories, deep structure in Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, he's a very big brain. He'd give you hope that you could come from one discipline into another. Sam Mendes is also incredible; he moved from theater into cinema. Well, I thank you for taking the time out, but also for giving me a glimpse into your origin story. That made a big difference to me, I felt I could be sitting in a coffee shop or a bar, and we'd have had very close to the same conversation. But I'd like to think I'd have asked you more questions and listened more, and asked you more about your father. DEADLINE: BONO: Turn up the volume, I say. I promise you this, we're working on something quite extraordinary at the moment, Edge, Adam, Larry and myself, so we're not going to let you down. DEADLINE: BONO: Steven Spielberg just flashed into my mind. Because Eve is working with him now, and I'm fed up hearing about Steven this, Steven that, and that Steven Spielberg is now the adult in the room in our house. And I would have to say the morality of his films was and is a North Star, not just for Eve, but for our family. As I say, I'm annoyed, I'm a little hurt that I come second as a sort of male figure or authority figure. Not that I was ever an authority figure for Eve, but the only person she'd probably listen to now, is him. Best of Deadline Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside the Amazon Upfront: There's No Escaping Walton Goggins
Amazon made its play to be the cool advertising partner on Monday night with a relatively zippy Beacon Theater presentation that followed an extremely loud DJ set from Steve Aoki. Perhaps the aspiring pizza impresario was instructed to keep the arriving crowd awake after enduring both NBCUniversal and Fox earlier in what proved to be an egregiously long day. Whether people were annoyed or enamored with Aoki, the masses seemed to be satisfied by the surprise performance from Lizzo that followed. Flanked by David Bautista and Jason Momoa (co-stars of Amazon MGM Studios' The Wrecking Crew), the flautist marched through the lobby, down one of the center aisles and onto the stage while singing 'About Damn Time.' It was the highest concentration of talent the week had seen thus far. More from The Hollywood Reporter Inside the Fox Upfront: Rupert Murdoch, David Letterman and an Unfortunate Tom Brady Pass Michael B. Jordan-Produced 'Creed' Series 'Delphi' Ordered at Amazon Prime Video Prime Video Hands Out Two-Season Renewal for 'Beast Games' Amazon's pitch is relatively straightforward. In short, everybody has it. Why waste time dwelling on numbers when there's an absolute canvas of stars waiting backstage? Jason and Travis Kelce, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cena and, making her second upfront appearance of the day, Elizabeth Banks were among those in attendance. That's not to say there weren't stats. VP of US Advertising Sales Tanner Elton noted that the U.S. audience on the ad-supported tier and grown to 130 million. But the evening was about showing off their talent, which Courtenay Valenti called 'the very best.' It was the Amazon MGM Studios head of film, streaming and theatrical's first time on the Amazon (or possibly any) upfront stage and she followed in former colleague Jennifer Salke's footsteps by introducing everyone they'd gathered for the pep rally. The Beacon could have just been pumping Delta Airlines levels of oxygen into the cavernous hall, but the crowd seemed genuinely thrilled with the procession of actors. The mere mention of Michael B. Jordan, on hand to announce he's producing a series set in what he's dubbed the 'Creed verse,' prompted one woman to scream before the Sinners star even walked out from behind the curtain. Almost no one, however, got the applause that Walton Goggins did when he showed up with Fallout co-stars Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten. He barely spoke, instead raising his arms up to incite more cheering. His character may be covered in grotesque makeup and missing a nose on the post-apocalyptic drama, but Amazon is certainly glad to be in business with the ascendant White Lotus star. The presentation also brought news that a third season had already been ordered — six months before the second is set to premiere. But Goggins remains a mere mortal, at least compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actor and former California governor was in especially good spirits while plugging Christmas film The Man With the Bag, as his backstory for the upcoming release devolved into a filibuster stand-up set. 'Jingle All the Way was the greatest Christmas movie of all time,' the former Governor of California noted, dismissing Home Alone and Elf 'or whatever they're called.' 'They play it the whole month of December. I know because my ex-wife calls me about the residual.' It was apparently with Maria Shriver's happiness in mind that Schwarzenegger signed on to play Santa in the Amazon MGM Studios film. Speaking of Schwarzenegger's wives, it took True Lies spouse Jamie Lee Curtis to get him off stage. She may have just been there to pitch Scarpetta, her upcoming series alongside Nicole Kidman, but the half-planned/half-improvised moment with Schwarzenegger saw the comedy continue. 'I just want you to know this is elderly abuse,' said Schwarzenegger, who then started praising a recent 60 Minutes segment on his friend and former co-star. For a moment, it seemed like the two were going to announce a sequel to True Lies. But then Curtis just told an unplanned story about how Schwarzenegger sharing top billing with her on the original, despite his contract stipulating solo status, made her career. 'The people backstage are going to be freaking out,' she said, before asking pulling at his arm. 'Are you ready to terminate this segment?' Alan Moss, Amazon's vice president of global advertising sales, had the misfortune of closing the show after Schwarzenegger and Curtis' audition host any awards show ever. He made a valiant effort to end the presentation with more business talk, but the time for 'full funnel advertising' talk had clearly passed. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained
Fast Company
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Amazon Prime Video will show you contextual AI-created ads when you pause a show
Amazon leaned into the advertising funnel in a big way during its 2025 Upfront event at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Monday night. Perhaps the most notable product enhancement the company unveiled was the use of AI to generate contextual advertising on its Prime Video platform —meaning that ads can and will be created on the fly, using AI, depending on the specific scene of a TV show or movie that is on the screen at any given time. For instance, if a viewer is watching a scene involving a loving phone call between a mother and daughter, pausing the show could result in an ad for mobile phone service, with AI-generated text dynamically created, right then and there. The ability gives Amazon's massive advertising artillery even more firepower. Amazon execs at the event noted that its Prime Video service now has a global audience of more than 300 million, up from 275 million a year ago, and that engagement also increased 40% over the past year. A star-studded pitch to advertisers Amazon's Upfront event was loaded with stars showcasing new projects for Prime Video. That included appearances by Michael B. Jordan, discussing a new Creed spinoff TV show called Delphi; Arnold Schwarzenegger (who stole the show with a 15-minute rambling appearance loaded with jokes about his old age) talking about his upcoming Christmas movie; John Cena talking about his new movie due out this summer with Idris Elba; and Jamie Lee Curtis, who announced that she's producing and starring in a new series, Scarpetta, alongside Nicole Kidman. The series will be an adaptation of the popular book series authored by Patricia Cornwell. Curtis later joined Schwarzenegger on stage to reminisce about the 1990s action movie True Lies in which they both starred. Other announcements include the December return of Fallout, which will air its second season, and was also renewed for a third season. Nicolas Cage was also announced as playing Spider-Man in Spider-Noir, which will be available to watch in either color or black-and-white. Two new seasons of Beast Games are also on the way. Finally, sports were front and center. The NFL will continue with Thursday night games on Prime, and Prime will also host a Black Friday game between Chicago and Philadelphia, and a Christmas Day game between Denver and Kansas City. Additionally, the NBA inked an 11-year deal with Prime, which will see 65 regular-season games air on the service, along with some playoff games.
