George Harrison Documentary - Martin Scorsese

[yerblues1968]

George Harrison


SCORSESE TO DIRECT HARRISON FILM

Docu to Cover Artist's Music, Movie Careers

Variety Music

By Michael Fleming

Posted: Wed., Sep. 26, 2007, 7:30pm PT


Martin Scorsese has committed to direct an untitled documentary about the life of George Harrison.



Director, Martin Scorsese at Cannes in 2007.


Scorsese will produce with Harrison's widow Olivia and Nigel Sinclair in a co-production between Scorsese's Sikelia Prods., Harrison's Grove Street Prods., and Sinclair's Spitfire Pictures.

The docu is being constructed as a theatrical release, and the Harrison family will supply materials from its extensive archive. Interviews and early production will begin later this year, and the film will take several years to complete.

Pic will cover Harrison's Beatles career and later years that included a successful solo music career as well as a foray as a movie mogul when he backed Handmade Films and made pics such as Monty Python's Life of Brian and Time Bandits. Scorsese, who explored themes of faith in Kundun and The Last Temptation of Christ, will also focus closely on the Eastern spiritual pursuits that were central to Harrison's life.

The docu will be edited by David Tedeschi, who served the same role on the Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones film Shine A Light. Tedeschi was also editor on the Scorsese-directed No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.

Spitfire's Sinclair was a producer on the Dylan film with Scorsese, and he just teamed with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend as a producer on Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who, which will be released on DVD by Universal on Nov. 5.

Sikelia's Margaret Bodde will be exec producer of the Harrison film.

"George Harrison's music and his search for spiritual meaning is a story that still resonates today and I'm looking forward to delving deeper," Scorsese said.

It is expected that Harrison's surviving Beatles band mates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will participate, as well as the Beatles' Apple Records, which counts Olivia Harrison as a partner.

Harrison met her husband in 1974 and they were together until he died of lung cancer at age 58 in 2001. The two of them famously fought off and subdued an attacker who broke into the Harrison home and stabbed the guitarist several times in 1999. She was also the catalyst for the tribute show The Concert for George, and organized a reissue of The Concert for Bangladesh, which Harrison put together in 1971.

"It would have given George great joy to know that Martin Scorsese has agreed to tell his story," she said.


www.variety.com/article/VR1117972815.html?categoryid=16&cs=1

[yerblues1968]

George Harrison


FRANK BEATLES INTERVIEW UNEARTHED

BBC News
By Georgie Rogers

Saturday, November 22, 2008


Details of a revealing interview with Beatles guitarist George Harrison have come to light after 40 years.

The reel-to-reel tapes have been stored by former journalist Miranda Ward since she talked to Harrison in 1967.

Film director David Lambert, who has heard the recordings, said: "It was really the meaning of life according to George Harrison in 1967."

He discussed subjects including Eastern mysticism, politics, Britain's drink culture and drug use, Mr Lambert said.

He heard the tapes while making a documentary about the Magical Mystery Tour film.

He said: "It was only a brief chat about that, but he went on and discussed all aspects of life and the way he viewed it at the time."

ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

Harrison is often referred to as the "quiet" Beatle and Miranda Ward was a friend of the group at the time.

Mr. Lambert said: "He covers all aspects of things, the Eastern mysticism, he was very involved at the time with the Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi].

"Then he goes on to talk about the drink culture of Great Britain which in 1967, from how he describes it, seems exactly as it is today.

"He talks about use of drugs and how certain politicians tend to rule the world and rule our lives."

Mr. Lambert only used a small section of the interview in his film, The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Memories, and said the rest of was "pretty controversial".

But he added: "I think you'll actually look at George and think, 'The guy really is talking a lot of sense and people should have listened possibly at the time'.

"He wasn't one to talk about these things. If you listened to it, you would fully expect someone like John [Lennon] to be doing the interview."

Mr. Lambert believes the full interview will see the light of day and could fetch "hundreds of thousands of pounds" at auction.

"At the moment there's a lot of interest in that," he said. "I believe Martin Scorsese, who did the Rolling Stones film is looking to do a 90-minute film on George Harrison.

"So, there is interest from the Scorsese camp for this interview."

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7742251.stm

[yerblues1968]

DIRECTOR SCOURS CITY ARCHIVES IN SEARCH FOR
TRUTH ABOUT BEATLES STAR GEORGE HARRISON

Liverpool Daily Post
by Laura Sharpe

Dec 27 2008


FILM director Martin Scorsese has been digging into Liverpool’s archives as he prepares to film an authorized documentary on the late George Harrison.

The film, set to go into production next year, will focus on Harrison’s spiritual and religious beliefs.

And staff at Liverpool’s Record Office believe they have stumbled on evidence which might explain why the guitarist became so religious.

Aside from sending old photographs of Liverpool and baptism records to Hollywood the research team have uncovered an old school register which shows an anomaly about Harrison.

The register, from Dovedale Junior School, shows Harrison, who lived at Upton Green, Speke, was exempt from religious education.

It reveals his parents, Harold and Louise, asked for him to be excluded from the morning prayers and assembly.

One of only a handful of exempted pupils, the register also shows a difference between Harrison and his older brother, Peter, who wasn’t excluded.

Kevin Roach, from Liverpool Record Office, said: “George was brought up a Catholic, but attended a Church of England School, but we still don’t know why he was ‘exempt’.

“It does make you wonder how his lack of religious education during the age of five and 11 affected him.”

Colleague Simon Whalley, an expert in Beatles history, added: “George was always the quiet one behind John and Paul, but he became such a spiritual person.

“In later interviews, he talked about spirituality and religion and he wasn’t scared to die.

“He ended up delving into meditation and was so far from western religion, it’s a mystery as to why he chose that path.”

Scorsese has already produced a documentary about the life of Bob Dylan up to 1966, No Direction Home, and the highly acclaimed concert film of Rolling Stones, Shine a Light, which was released this year.

For this latest project, he is working alongside Harrison’s widow, Olivia, whom he has asked to co-produce the film.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Star are also thought to have agreed to participate.

Other records sent to Grove Street Films show Harrison’s baptism at Our Lady of Good Health, Wavertree, in March, 1943.

Aside from attending the same primary school as John Lennon, the school records also shows the Harrison family’s move to Speke and his attendance at the former Liverpool Institute.



George Harrison and Paul McCartney attended Liverpool Institute and School of Art (LIPA)


Better known as Paul McCartney’s LIPA, Harrison left the institute on July 23, 1959.

Photographs of Arnold Grove taken in the early 1970s, the church of his baptism and photographs of the new council houses next to the old Speke village buildings have also been faxed to America.



This house at 12 Arnold Grove in the Wavertree suburb of Liverpool was the birthplace and former home
of Beatle George Harrison until he was 7 years old.


Mr. Roach added: “These documents chart the facts of his early life and rather than listening to myth or reading old newspaper reports the film crew have asked for all the evidence.

“Despite this there is so much we still don’t know about George and the Beatles, for example we have never found any record of where John Lennon was baptised if he was at all.”

The film, which is likely to go into production next year and take several years to complete is thought to have been sparked by the discovery of a lost interview with Harrison last month.

Recorded by journalist Miranda Ward in 1967, Harrison talks frankly about his life, Eastern politics and drugs.

laura sharpe




George Harrison interview on the Today Show in the mid-1980s. (6:27 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0tdebT95DQ


www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/capital-of-culture/2008/12/27/director-scours-city-archives-in-search-for-truth-about-beatles-star-george-harrison-64375-22556115/

[yerblues1968]

Martin Scorsese’s Documentary LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORD: GEORGE HARRISON
Being Shopped Around at Cannes

collier.com
by Bill Graham

Posted:May 15th, 2010 at 4:52 pm


Beatle mania is far from over. With the recent John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy released last year, George Harrison was next in line. Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese pulled double duty, filming both Living in the Material World: George Harrison and Shutter Island at the same time. Now, according to Variety, Scorsese and George’s widow Olivia Harrison are helping promote the film as Exclusive, which holds worldwide distribution rights, is shopping the film at Cannes.

Scorsese has delved into rock docs in the past, and this particular one struck a personal chord with the director as he relates to the late George Harrison. Harrison gave Scorsese exclusive access to the musician’s materials, some of which have never been seen by the public. For more on the documentary, and Scorsese’s own rock ‘n’ roll history, hit the jump.

The director related to the musician’s spiritual journey, which he found fascinating, and the search for a balance between the spiritual and the physical helped lead to the title of the doc.

“I grew up a Roman Catholic and wanted to become a priest, so it is a subject matter that has never left me,” Scorsese told Variety. “The more you’re in the material world, the more the search for serenity.”





The film will reveal notes, cassette tapes, and photos, including never released footage of the guitarist’s life, covering his days with the Beatles to his death in 2001. Additionally, we will hear from some of the songwriter’s closest friends, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono, and Phil Spector.

Scorsese has covered a number of rock icons in the past, including the Band (1978’s The Last Waltz), Bob Dylan (2005’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan), and the Rolling Stones (2008’s Shine a Light). In fact, Scorsese filmed No Direction Home at the same time as The Aviator, and it appears he might have found a perfect mix in filming live action simultaneously with a non-fiction work.

“In a complicated way, it frees me from the constrictions of a feature, Scorsese told Variety. “I have a narrative freedom.”

The film is currently in the editing bay with David Tedeschi, who also worked on No Direction Home and Shine a Light. Living in the Material World is a joint production between Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions, Olivia Harrison’s Grove Street Productions, and Exclusive’s Spitfire Pictures. Here is to hoping the sun shines brightly on the picture.



George Harrison song, "Living In The Material World"
from his 1973 album of the same title. (5:27 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=31nvQDSzxrU

www.collider.com/2010/05/15/martin-scorsese-living-in-the-material-world-george-harrison-documentary-cannes-shopped-around/