Late last year cable giant Lifetime announced that they would be remaking the 1989 classic ‘Steele Magnolias’. As though that news was not shocking enough, the network also disclosed that the new version of the film would have an all-black cast. Starring Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, Adepero Oduye, Phylicia Rashad, Jill Scott and Condola Rashad, the film will follow six Louisiana women as they experience the ups and downs of life.

Of the remake, Nancy Dubuc, president and general manager of Lifetime Entertainment stated,

The caliber of talent associated with this film is astounding and falls in line with our strategy to make Lifetime a first stop for the industry’s best both in front of and behind the camera. Queen Latifah, Phylicia, Alfre, Jill, Adepero and Condola are some of the most celebrated women in music, film, television and stage—and we could not be more thrilled and honored for them to bring Robert Harling’s poignant story about the strength of women to a whole new generation.

News of the remake has stirred much debate on the internet. There are those who are thrilled that the film will be told from black women’s perspectives. Then, there are those who are upset that a classic will potentially be ruined.

Adapted from Robert Harling’s stage play of the same name and starring Sally Field and Dolly Parton, ‘Steel Magnolias’ premiered in November 1989. It instantly became a favorite among film lovers and went on to gross more than 95 million dollars at the box office. The film was originally intended to be a short story as Harling attempted to cope with the death of his younger sister, Susan Harling Robinson, a diabetic.

Instead, a full-length play developed. The idea behind the play was to show the strength of women through humor and conversation. Harling wanted to keep the integrity of his family’s ordeal intact, so for the film he cast several of Susan’s actual nurses, doctors and other hospital staff in their real life roles.

The title, ‘Steel Magnolias’, refers to the delicacy of a magnolia flower and the strength of steel. A total oxymoron, it suggests that not all things which are thought to be pretty, but weak, are so. The women in the film prove that when faced with tragedy, they are more than delicate darlings to be admired.

No official release date has been set for the film; however, the network has recently released a trailer to stir excitement among fans.

Image Courtesy of   Jose Gil / Shutterstock.com

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Carslbad, U.SA. – He may be leader of the free world, but little did anyone know President Barrack Obama was also a natural vocalist. This year, President Obama claimed the number one spot in NAMM’s annual survey on America’s favorite “Unexpected Musician,” a personality not primarily known for playing a musical instrument, with a majority of 29%.

Since crooning a few lines of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a New York fundraising event in January, the president has captured America’s heart with his surprising talent. In an interview with Barbara Walters one month prior, he revealed that he deeply regrets not having learned a musical instrument in school.

Seasoned Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep (violin) tied with actor Robert Downey, Jr.(piano, vocals) for second-place, both securing 24% of votes, while funnyman Steve Carell came in fourth place (10%) for his flute-playing skills, over “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence (5%), who plays the guitar.

The National Association of Music Merchants created the Unexpected Musicians Database in 2010 in response to a Gallup Poll that found 85% of Americans who do not play a musical instrument wish they did in an effort to encourage aspiring musicians by helping them find further musical inspiration from celebrities they already admire.

The extensive list includes professional athletes, actors, politicians and more. From Julia Roberts’ skills on the clarinet to Clint Eastwood’s hidden piano talent, the detailed database offers fans the opportunity to find out just how talented their favorite celebrities really are, demonstrating that anyone can become a musician despite age, experience or profession. The Unexpected Musicians Database can be found at wannaplaymusic website.

This year, as part of NAMM’s National Wanna Play Music Week (May 7-13, 2012), the association commissioned a survey to learn which Unexpected Musicians Americans favor most. Key survey findings include:

• More women (28 %) than men (23 %) were excited to discover that President Obama is a vocalist, while 20 % of women and 27 % of men were excited to learn that Robert Downey, Jr. sings and plays the piano.
• Millennials were most excited to learn about President Obama’s (30 %) and Robert Downey, Jr.’s (30 %) musical talents.
• Meanwhile, survey-takers aged 65-plus were most excited to learn about Meryl Streep’s musical abilities, with 37 % voting for the actress. Streep was also the Baby Boomers’ celebrity of choice at 34 %.

The findings are the result of a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 adults ages 18 and over, living in the United States, conducted by KRC Research, April 19-22, 2012, on behalf of NAMM. The margin of error for this study is +3.1 % at the 95 % confidence level. The data was weighted by demographic variables to ensure the sample accurately reflects the U.S. adult population.

Image Courtesy of  cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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Those familiar with the age-old fairytale will not be surprised to learn that ‘Mirror Mirror’s spectacular climax is a royal ball to celebrate the marriage of Snow White and her Prince. Director Tarsem Singh wanted to heighten the festive atmosphere with a dazzling musical number done in classic Bollywood style.

He selected Nina Hart’s late ’60s pop song “Love.” “I had the song in mind from the beginning, but they kept telling me I wouldn’t be able to get the rights,” says the director. “Finally, right before we started shooting, it worked out. When I heard that Lily could sing, I had her record a version of the song for us. She was fantastic. We knew we had to incorporate her vocals into a big dance sequence.”

Choreographer Paul Becker came in during preproduction to design the number, which involves the entire cast as well as over 200 extras. “It starts almost without warning,” he says. “Lily suddenly breaks into song and dance and everyone else seems to be wondering what she is up to. But then slowly the Dwarfs join in and then everyone starts to dance. It’s just a big party.”

Becker designed the dance to resemble one of Hollywood’s unforgettable Busby Berkeley production numbers, with overhead shots capturing the swirling patterns of dancers below. According to Lily Collins, “It was a great time. It felt like a huge music video with hundreds of people dancing around me. We really let loose. I never in a million years thought I would be able to do a number like that. It was just amazing.”

The film’s music, which ranges fom haunting to exhilarating to poignant, was written by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken, composer of a host of unforgettable scores for movies including four classic Disney animated treasures: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas.

The subject matter of the film has something in common with those earlier projects, but the treatment is very different, according to the composer. “What’s unique about this movie is the visual beauty and sophistication of Tarsem’s directing, combined with the innocence of an oft-told tale,” says Menken. “It’s a new kind of fairytale—elegant and edgy and fun.”

Singh gave Menken two directives before setting him to work. “He told me to make the score my own,” says Menken. “And he trusted me to own the process. That kind of artistic freedom made it a lot of fun for me.”

The director also asked him to develop a “thematic” score, one in which the music would reflect and enhance the characters and the story. “That’s unusual these days,” Menken says. “He wanted big, broad themes and that’s right in my wheelhouse.”

For the innocent and gallant Snow White, the composer created purely emotional music, heartrending as Snow gets her first glimpse of the financially ruined townspeople or soaring as she fell in love with the Prince at first sight. “We didn’t walk any fine lines,” he says. “We went right for the primary colors in those themes.

“And I threaded the themes throughout,” he goes on. “The dwarfs are like the Marx Brothers at times, so their thematic material emphasizes the comedic. When we first meet the Queen in the court, we’re playing a very formal, Mozartian theme. The Prince himself is introduced with classic hunting horns that signify nobility.”

The net effect of Singh’s brilliant leaps of imagination is to transport both the film’s stars and the audience into a sparkling world of fantasy. As Collins says, “Everyone loves a good fairy tale. They create a space where you can laugh, where you can be scared, and where you can simply be amazed. Ours is a multi-generational story and that’s what a fairy tale is supposed to be, something that everyone can enjoy.”

Julia Roberts agrees, adding, “I think the audience is going to get lost in this film. I would love for them to just sit back and be transported somewhere else for two hours.”

Singh’s greatest hope is that the audience will be the ones to reap the rewards of the cast and crew’s meticulous efforts. “My primary goal with this film is to create a family movie that people will have a lot of fun seeing,” he says. “It’s been a great honor getting to creatively reinterpret this classic story, which has meant so much to so many generations. I really hope the audience enjoys what we’ve created.”

Image Courtesy of Mirror Mirror

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Against the backdrop of this meticulously imagined world, a gleefully physical adventure unfolds as a sheltered princess of ‘Mirror Mirror’ learns to adapt to life outside the palace walls. From her woodland hosts, Snow White begins to learn to stand up for herself in stirring action sequences. As always, director Tarsem Singh was concerned with authenticity. “I wanted actual physical fighting with real weapons and real aggression,” says Singh. “But more than anything, I wanted the actors to actually take part in the adventurous parts of this film.”

The film’s stars underwent months of intensive training for grueling action scenes involving swordplay, acrobatics, high-speed horseback riding and more. “It was five days a week, almost six hours a day of sword fighting,” says Armie Hammer. “And I had the blisters and the calluses to prove it.

I learned how to do a back flip with a sword in my hand, and a front flip with a sword in my hand, and a side flip and a vortex flip—all things that I never knew how to do before. I was always excited to see what we were going to be doing next. My favorite thing was riding the horses right on the soundstage at a full gallop.”

Lily Collins adds, “There was a lot of fight training in this film. We did sword fighting and fencing and wrestling and acrobatics and then physical training. We worked out in the gym, we ran, we lifted weights. It was really intense.”

Fight coordinator Jean Frenette taught the actors the basics of combat, step by arduous step. “There’s a progression to it,” he says. “It’s like boot camp in the beginning. The process of repetition helps the actors build up their confidence and skill level over time. We want them to treat it seriously but we don’t want them to over-train and burn out. It’s a lot like preparing an athlete for a competition.”

Stunt coordinator Marc Desourdy adds, “Lily and Armie were fantastic. They’re so coordinated and so talented. They learn very quickly. Lily was very keen on doing all of her own stunts. We put her to work doing flips and acrobatics. And we did the same with Armie. When you see them close-up, sword fighting, it’s all them.”

In the end, the work paid off in action sequences that appear effortless, says Goldmann. “Watching them on film, it’s easy to forget all the work that went into it. Lily and Armie rehearsed and trained, and rehearsed and trained. They put in the time so that when we shot these sequences, they came out perfectly.”

One of Singh’s cunning innovations resulted in a series of action scenes that require complex preparation and physical daring. Since the Dwarfs had been thrown out of the village because of their size, he thought, they might likely become fixated on their height. Trying to compensate for their stature, Mirror Mirror’s little men commit their robberies on stilts. Desourdy tracked down a group of daredevil stilt walkers in Toulouse, France, to train the actors to fight on stilts.

“They were amazing,” he says. “They taught our guys to walk, run and jump with stilts. The stunts that are performed on the stilts are absolutely sensational and unlike anything you’ve seen before. The audience is in for a treat.”

Image Courtesy of Mirror Mirror

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The filmmakers behind the fairytale ‘Mirror Mirror’ mounted a major casting search for an actress who would embody Snow White’s innocence and determination, spending a month auditioning roughly 300 young women before discovering Lily Collins. “The second she came in everybody knew Lily was our Snow White,” says producer Kevin Misher.

“She was cast on April 1 and when her agent called her 24 hours after she had read, she thought it was an April Fool’s joke. It’s so hard to find a contemporary actress who embodies the grace of Audrey Hepburn and the class of Elizabeth Taylor and seems untouched by contemporary vices. Lily seemed to embody the classic goodness that the character of needed.”

Producer Bernie Goldmann concurs: “Snow White is loved by nature and loves nature. As outwardly beautiful as she is, she is driven inner beauty. Young girls today are so sophisticated that at 21 they seem like they’re 35. But Lily seems so young and innocent. She projects genuineness, not only on the screen, but in real life as well, and that’s really what we were looking for.”

This telling of the story updates the character, according to Collins. “And I love the idea that we’ve modernized Snow White. She starts out as the familiar fairy-tale princess that everyone grew up knowing, wide eyed and naïve. She’s been locked up in her tower, unaware of what’s going on outside, but she goes on to become a girl who fights for what she believes in. Once she embraces everything she is, Snow is able to open herself up to the world and grow into a young woman.”

Collins believes the character has universal appeal. “I think every young girl and adult woman has a little bit of Snow in her,” she says. “We tried to do that with humor. It’s a comedic adventure for the whole family.”

Snow White’s suitor, Prince Alcott, has also been taken out of the realm of stock fairy-tale character and transformed into a more contemporary hero. Played by Armie Hammer, the Prince is an essential figure in the conflict between Snow White, who asks him for help in regaining her throne, and her stepmother, who is plotting to marry the handsome young man by any means possible.

“There are very few actors who can comport themselves with a sense of dignity and royalty, as well as provide the fun that the movie requires,” says Misher. “Armie walks that line between gravitas and a lack of self-consciousness in a completely refreshing way. He’s somebody who I think men will embrace as a guy they can relate to and women will fall in love with. That really is the definition of a classic movie star.”

Hammer, who stands six-foot-five and is classically good-looking, was made for the role, says Goldmann. “If there was a Prince of America, it would be Armie. He’s a very handsome guy with a very stately quality, but in this movie we see a whole other side to him. He’s so accessible and charming and funny. Everybody on set felt like he was their best friend.”

Julia Roberts agrees Hammer was perfectly cast. “First, he is just a lovely young man,” she says. “But we had a lot of very long scenes together and he was very prepared, and really funny in this part. He brings a great humor and earnestness to it. You just want to see more and more of him.”

The chance to work with Roberts was a huge attraction to the role for Hammer. “She brings all of Julia to it, which is fantastic. It was so impressive to watch her work, because she is so in control of her instrument. Every movement, every gesture, was so precise. Audiences will see some of Julia that hasn’t really been shown before.”

Initially, Hammer admits to some skepticism about playing “Prince Charming.” “It sounded so saccharine,” he says. “But I discussed my hesitations with [director] Tarsem and he assured me that I would help create the character.

He said he wanted to make a movie about finding courage, finding love, and finding your place in this world, infused with great humor and great acting. His enthusiasm for the project was infectious. He brings an unceasing effervescence to set, always putting a thousand percent into everything. You can’t help but be pumped up when you’re on set with him.”

Hammer found a character who is searching for purpose in much the same way Snow White is. “The Prince has all these tools,” he says. “Like any good prince, he’s been trained to fight and trained to dance. He knows his history, sciences and mathematics. He understands the world—but only on paper. He doesn’t know how it really works, so he sets out seeking adventure and finds a ton of it. He finds more than he can actually handle at first.”

Image Courtesy of   Mirror Mirror

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For his reinterpretation of the iconic Dwarfs for the tale of ‘Mirror Mirror’, director Tarsem Singh found seven extraordinary actors. “We were incredibly lucky in casting this film and these actors are no exception,” he notes. “The level of energy and creativity they’ve brought to this story has been phenomenal.”

Rather than rely on the familiar band of animated figures for inspiration, the filmmakers allowed each of the actors to define an original character. “We hired the actors first and then developed the characters around their personalities,” explains Goldmann. “The actors all participated in a workshop process that helped define the characters. Each of them needed to contribute something special in terms of helping Snow White to grow into the woman she must become.”

With that in mind, the characters of Butcher, Grimm, Half-Pint, Napoleon, Wolf, Chuckles, and Grub (Martin Klebba, Danny Woodburn, Mark Povinelli, Jordan Prentice, Sebastian Saraceno, Ronald Lee Clark and Joe Gnoffo respectively) began to take shape. As Klebba explains, “I’m called Butcher because I was the main butcher in town. Half-Pint owned the local pub. Grimm was a teacher. Each of them comes from a different part of their former society. Their only connection is that they’ve all been cast out because of their height.”

Clark adds, “After being banished from the Kingdom, the seven of us become a family. We quarrel all the time but we’re able to keep things together because we know how much we need each other.” Alone in the world, Snow White has to depend on the seven men to teach her how to make her way. As she gets acquainted with her unlikely mentors, the audience learns about their unique attributes.

“We each train her to do something different—how to fight with a sword, how to wrestle, how to fight dirty and how to think on her feet. Most importantly, we teach her to believe in herself,” says Woodburn. Lily Collins worked closely with them all, developing a camaraderie not unlike the onscreen one between Snow and the Dwarfs.

She says, “Martin, Danny, Mark, Sebastian, Jordan, Ronald and Joe are phenomenal. They’ve created these memorable characters that fit so perfectly into a group despite being so different from one another.”

Rounding out a distinguished cast are Oscar-nominee Mare Winningham as Baker Margaret, Snow’s confidante at the palace, Oscar-nominee Michael Lerner as the Baron, whose clumsy romantic overtures send the Queen into paroxysms of rage, SAG Award-winner Sean Bean as the King, Snow’s benevolent but ill-fated father, and up-and-coming young British actor Robert Emms as Charles Renbock, the Prince’s faithful valet and reluctant traveling companion.

Singh was overjoyed with the efforts of the supporting actors that help populate the fantasy world he created, explaining, “You always want great actors in your film. The hope is to make a movie that stands the test of time and a fabulous supporting cast is what makes that possible.”

The quality of the cast is a testament to Singh’s talent and imagination, according to Julia Roberts. “Everyone contributed an incredible interpretation of their characters,” she says. “I think it’s because all of us were eager to be here for Tarsem and be part of the magical place he invented.”

Image Courtesy of Mirror Mirror

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