Clint to Narrate New Documentary on Warners

[Hammerhead]

Press release from Warner Bros. here:

http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/corpcomm/press_release.jsp?id=YouMustRememberThisTheWarnerBrosStory85thAnniversary

“You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” - New Documentary Is Centerpiece Of Warner Home Video’s Year-Long Celebration Of Studio’s 85th Anniversary
(February 5, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – On April 4, 1923, four brothers from Youngstown, Ohio (Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. Warner) officially incorporated their new motion picture company which to this day continues to entertain the world with great films.

Throughout 2008, Warner Home Video (WHV) will celebrate Warner Bros. (WB) Studios’ 85th anniversary with an initiative that will debut more than 50 new-to-DVD feature films along with its centerpiece, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story,” an illuminating new documentary produced, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker and Time magazine Senior Film critic Richard Schickel. Clint Eastwood narrates.

As part of the partnership with American Masters, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” will be broadcast nationally as a three-part special in September 2008.

Susan Lacy, the creator and executive producer of “American Masters,” which is produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, noted "Given our long co-producing relationship with Warner Bros. -- on such projects as George Cukor, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland and John Ford/John Wayne - it is thrilling and appropriate that American Masters can bring ‘You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story’ to PBS."

“PBS’ ‘American Masters’ is acclaimed for its exceptional documentaries illuminating our collective past, whether through individual achievements, or in this case, through the vision of a film studio,” said John F. Wilson, Sr. Vice President and Chief TV Programming Executive, PBS. “Exploring this impressive body of Warner Bros. films to more fully understand America’s unique place in history will be a wonderful and entertaining journey for our viewers.”

The DVD debuts in September. Simultaneously, a 550-page full-color companion book -- written by Schickel and George Perry, with an introduction by Eastwood -- will be published worldwide. George Perry is the former The Times of London film critic and is the author of many books on film.

In the documentary, Schickel chronicles the history of Warner Bros. in an unprecedented way, using excerpts from hundreds of Warner Bros.’ films to illustrate how many of the studio’s films have served as a mirror of the values, mores and attitudes of the eras in which they were produced.

“This documentary is definitely in Richard’s DNA. His fascination with Warner Bros. goes back to his boyhood in Milwaukee where the only theatre in town was owned by Warner,” said George Feltenstein, Senior Vice President, Theatrical Catalog Marketing, and Warner Home Video. “It’s a groundbreaking work that, rather than dealing with executive intrigue, contract disputes or casting couch adventures, focuses on the studio’s films as a microcosm of America’s cultural and social history. It’s a unique cinematic achievement which has never been attempted on this level ever before - for this or any studio.”

To help celebrate the 85th anniversary year, from the vast WB library among the industry’s most celebrated movies, more than 50 are being restored for their DVD release this year including: “All This And Heaven, Too,” “The Beast With Five Fingers,” “Black Legion,” “Brother Orchid,” “Deception,” “Flamingo Road,” “Gold Diggers Of 1937,” “Inside Daisy Clover,” “Kid Galahad,” “Lady Killer,” “The Mayor Of Hell,” “Night Nurse,” “None But The Brave,” “Pete Kelly’s Blues,” “San Antonio,” “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” “Three On A Match,” “Virginia City” and “Watch On The Rhine.”

New special editions of Warner Bros. Pictures favorites including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Gypsy,” “Risky Business,” and “Splendor in the Grass” are also set for the anniversary year celebration. A number of other new-to-DVD special editions and thematic box sets drawn from Warner’s classic MGM and RKO collections will also be part of this anniversary slate.

Each quarter of 2008 will be marked with the release of several timeless collections, such as Frank Sinatra, Dirty Harry, Gangsters, Super Heroes, Musicals, Westerns, Oscars and more.

On August 31, the Hollywood Bowl’s “Big Picture” night will honor the studio’s magnificent movie music legacy with a special Warner Bros. musical concert to be held at the famed 18,000 seat amphitheatre. The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, led by one of Hollywood’s foremost composers, David Newman, will perform music to accompany pivotal and well-known scenes from classic Warner Bros. films.

More about the Schickel Documentary

Clint Eastwood, who has worked with Richard Schickel on a number of projects, will narrate the documentary. The creative force behind many earlier works about Warner’s talented stars and directors, Schickel now takes on the task of telling the studio's entire history, with each sequence underscoring the crucial roles Warner Bros. and its films have played in portraying our society, a role the studio still plays today, some 85 years after its incorporation.

Through the use of rare archival interviews, some of which have not been seen for decades, as well as a great deal of newly photographed material, Schickel celebrates the colorful legacy of Warner Bros. throughout the decades, featuring cleverly assembled film clips from literally hundreds of films. Each of the documentary's hour-long sequences focus on a specific period in the studio's history, from the silent movie days and the development of sound, the depression, WWII, the advent of television, the onset of new technologies, and even the broadening and diversification of media companies in recent years.

Schickel engagingly retraces the legendary insights and demystifies the myths of some of Hollywood’s most magnificent productions such as “The Jazz Singer,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Casablanca,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “To Have and Have Not,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Giant,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Exorcist,” “All The President’s Men” and the Batman and Harry Potter films; and talent from the likes of legends such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Newman, James Dean, Doris Day, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand and George Clooney. As the films from Warner Bros. studios have served as a roadmap and mirror of our social history, “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story” is sure to be viewed as an entertaining and unique roadmap to the colorful history of Hollywood and filmed entertainment.

All five Dirty Harry films in an Ultimate Collector’s Edition

• Dirty Harry 2-Disc Special Edition (1971)
• Magnum Force Deluxe Edition (1973)
• The Enforcer Deluxe Edition (1976)
• Sudden Impact Deluxe Edition (1983)
• Dead Pool Deluxe Edition (1988)
• Bonus Disc Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows

 

Anybody know the difference between a Deluxe Edition and a Special Edition?

[KC]

Back to the original topic here, the Warners docu: It's going to be screened in Cannes this year as part of the Festival's tribute to Warner Brothers. So Clint will be a presence in two Cannes events, as director of Changeling, screening in competition, and as narrator of You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story,

Here's the Variety link:

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117985221&cs=1

[Dan Dassow]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-warnerbros23-2008sep23,0,2165186.story
Los Angeles Times
TELEVISION REVIEW
'American Masters: You Must Remember This -- The Warner Bros. Story'
By Mary McNamara, Times Television Critic
September 23, 2008

Warner Bros. Studio turns 85 this year, an anniversary now marked by two of the most recognizable symbols of success, High Hollywood style: a No. 1 summer blockbuster -- "The Dark Knight" -- and a long, thoughtful PBS biopic.

The three-part “You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story," which premieres tonight, is written and directed by Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel, and is based on his book by the same name. It bills itself as a five-hour walk through the studio's history. ...

Narrated by Clint Eastwood, who has worked with Warner Bros. extensively, from the "Dirty Harry" years, through his Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby," "You Must Remember This" opens in 1923, when Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack officially incorporate their new motion-picture company. These first two hours, which take us to 1950, are perhaps the most interesting, if only because this was when the studio was at its purest. No television to compete with, no subdivisions, no multimedia marketing -- the brothers just made movies. Lots of movies, that created many of our most beloved stars. ...

[KC]

Thanks for posting that, Dan. (I've merged your post with our older thread on this documentary.) I had meant to post a link to a review in the New York Times ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/arts/television/23mast.html

The scope of the documentary, part of the American Masters series on PBS, is epic: it is five hours long and will be shown over three nights (beginning Tuesday on most stations). Directed by the critic and author Richard Schickel, the film has Clint Eastwood as both narrator and one of its subjects. Mr. Eastwood forged his relationship with Warner in the 1970s, when the studio was attaching itself to a stable of innovative directors, among them Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Mr. Scorsese provides much of the commentary, functioning both as film scholar and corporate enthusiast and explaining how honored he was to land his 1973 film, “Mean Streets,” at the studio responsible for some of the greatest gangster pictures ever.

Did anyone watch? (I've still been distracted with baseball games.)

[Dan Dassow]

Thanks for posting that, Dan. (I've merged your post with our older thread on this documentary.) I had meant to post a link to a review in the New York Times ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/arts/television/23mast.html

Did anyone watch? (I've still been distracted with baseball games.)

I was able to see part of the second segment. In general, I found it interesting but at the same time frustrating because none of the films could be covered in depth.

As expected, Mr. Eastwood did a great job narrating. His films, such as Dirty Harry and Every Which Way but Loose, were well represented.

For fans in the New York Area, two segments will be rebroadcast today.

American Masters: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story; You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet (1923-35); Good War, Uneasy Peace (1935-50)
Saturday, September 27, 1:00pm
The early years of Warner Bros.
 
American Masters: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story: A New Reality (1950-70)
Saturday, September 27, 3:00pm
"A New Reality (1950-70)," about the Warner response to TV.

Local Schedule (by zip code): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/schedule/

For more information:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/warner-bros/you-must-remember-this/281/