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Dave Grohl’s ‘From Cradle To Stage’ Gets Premiere Date On Paramount+, First-Look Promo

Paramount+ has set Thursday, May 6 for the premiere of From Cradle To Stage, a six-part series from Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his mother Virginia Hanlon Grohl, inspired by her critically-acclaimed book, From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars.

The Live Nation Productions series is a dynamic personal exploration of the special relationship between successful musicians and their moms, and will feature famous performers along with their mothers including Brandi Carlile, Miranda Lambert, Geddy Lee, Tom Morello, Dan Reynolds and Pharrell Williams.

Paramount+ also released a first-look promo (above) which airs during the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards today on CBS and Paramount+.

Honest, humorous and emotional, each episode features a famous performer and their mother, alongside Dave and Virginia, as they take an impassioned journey home and explore each artists’ upbringing and the tools they received as a young talent to survive the turbulence of success.

Episode roll-out includes:

● May 6: Dan Reynolds (of Imagine Dragons) and Christene Reynolds

● May 13: Pharrell and Dr. Carolyn Williams

● May 20: Miranda and Bev Lambert

● May 27: Brandi and Teresa Carlile

● June 3: Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) and Mary Morello

● June 10: Geddy Lee (of Rush) and Mary Weinrib

“I believe that the relationship between a musician and their mother is so important because it’s the foundation of their understanding of love, which is surely every artist’s greatest muse,” said Grohl. “Having the opportunity to travel the country and tell the stories of these amazing women behind the curtain not only shed some light on the music that they inspired, but also made me appreciate the love that I was given from my own mother, my best friend. It goes without saying that we are all indebted to the women who have given us life. For without them, there would be no music.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Dave, Virginia, Live Nation, Silva Artist Management and Endeavor Content to deliver this amazing series to our Paramount+ audience exclusively,” said Bruce Gillmer, ViacomCBS President of Music, Music Talent, Programming & Events. “This series, based on Virginia Grohl’s acclaimed book, offers a rare look at the intimate and inspiring moments between some of the world’s biggest performers and their moms — just in time for Mother’s Day.”

From Cradle to Stage is produced by Live Nation Productions, in association with Endeavor Content. The series is executive produced by Dave Grohl and Virginia Hanlon Grohl, Doug Pray ( The Defiant Ones), John Ramsay ( Sonic Highways), Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, Ryan Kroft, and Damian Vaca.

“Live Nation is proud to collaborate with Virginia and Dave on this moving tribute featuring great talent and the women who raised them,” said Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. “We have the privilege of working with these incredible artists to bring their music to the stage and now Live Nation Productions has the honor of bringing their stories to the screen.”

Originally published at https://deadline.com on April 18, 2021.

David Bowie Doc and Concert Film ‘Moonage Daydream’ Picked Up by Neon

Neon has landed the rights to release “Moonage Daydream,” a new feature film, concert documentary and “experiential cinematic odyssey” that follows David Bowie’s life and musical career and is the first sanctioned by Bowie’s estate.

Brett Morgen is directing the film that is near completion and will feature Bowie’s own narration. Neon will release “Moonage Daydream” domestically, while Universal Pictures Content Group will release the film internationally, and HBO Documentary Films has North American rights for streaming and cable in spring 2023.

The film was designed from conception as a unique cinematic experience and will also be released in IMAX in select markets. The film will also be released in partnership with Public Road Productions, BMG, Live Nation Productions, and HBO Documentary Films.

“Moonage Daydream” illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie with a project that shows how Bowie himself worked across several disciplines, not just music and film but also dance, painting, sculpture, video and audio collage, screenwriting, acting, and live theatre. The film reveals the celebrated icon through his own voice and features 48 musical tracks, mixed from their original stems.

Morgen was granted access to Bowie’s archives by his estate in 2017 and presented him with master recordings as well as never-before-seen 35mm and 16mm reels of never-before-seen performances, all of which will appear on screen for the first time. In addition, all music in the film has been remixed from the original stems into Dolby Atmos, 12.0, 5.0, and 7.1/5.1.

“Moonage Daydream” is written, directed, edited, and produced by Morgen. The film’s executive producers are Hartwig Masuch, Kathy Rivkin-Daum and Justus Haerder for BMG; Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, and Ryan Kroft for Live Nation Productions; Bill Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Aisha Cohen, and Eileen D’Arcy from RZO; Billy Gerber, and Debra Eisenstadt. BMG and Live Nation Productions financed the film.

Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend and music producer Tony Visconti also worked on the film alongside sound mixer Paul Massey and David Giammarco, sound design team of John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone and VFX Producer Stefan Nadelman, who worked with Morgen on his film “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.”

The title “Moonage Daydream” references David Bowie’s eponymous song from the influential 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,”which introduced the world to his iconic, gender-bending, and groundbreaking stage persona, Ziggy Stardust.

NEON’s Jeff Deutchman negotiated the North America deal with Kevin Koloff, as well as Karen Gottlieb of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, P.C. Submarine and WME handled sales for “Moonage Daydream.”

Originally published at https://www.thewrap.com on April 13, 2022.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story and Heather Parry

Heather Parry believes every artist has a story to tell and is passionate about giving them a platform to do that. One of the artists given this opportunity to share their story and passion is Sean “Diddy” Combs, rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and record executive.

Working alongside Daniel Kaufman, Michael Rapino, Andre Harrell and Alex Avant, Parry and Combs teamed up to produce an artist-based documentary on the Bad Boy Records label and Diddy’s remarkable rise to fame.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story was produced during Heather’s time at Live Nation Productions.  The 80-minute long documentary is another one of the film producer’s critically acclaimed projects.

Released exclusively on Apple Music in June 2017, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop went on to top the iTunes documentary charts in the U.S, Canada, U.K, France and Australia. The successful documentary also saw an upsurge in the streaming of golden oldies like Hypnotize and I’ll be Missing You.  

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop showcases Diddy’s remarkable rise to fame and sheds more light on his record company, Bad Boy Records, which he founded in 1993. In it, the mogul also plans a massive reunion of artists who worked with the label, some of whom had long left the records company. Having had only three weeks to rehearse, a one-night concert was held at Barclay’s Hotel in Brooklyn to celebrate the label’s 20th anniversary. This concert was also held on the anniversary of Biggie “Notorious B.I.G” Smalls’ birthday.

With a net worth of over $700 million, Diddy’s unapologetic work ethic has seen him rise in fame and fortune to become the current third-richest hip-hop artist. His go-getter attitude and willingness to share his story made it easy for highly-driven Parry, along with everyone else who was hands-on-deck, to make this documentary which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. 

Though it lost to another one of Parry’s award-winning productions, Gaga: Five Foot Two, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop was a nominee for the 2018 Best Music Documentary award by the MTV + TV Awards. Still, this musical documentary already had an award in its bag as it had been recognized by the Hollywood Film Awards as the Best Documentary in 2017. Also, it received the Documentary of the Year award in 2018 from Hermes Creative Awards.

Heather Parry doesn’t believe in producing documentaries that “feel like a press kit” showcasing how great an artist’s work is. Instead, she strives to produce content that reflects an artist’s journey to stardom. This is seen in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop where Diddy, who credits his parents for his strong work ethic, allows himself to become vulnerable as he shows fans that the road to success isn’t always linear.

Heather Parry has been successful in the film industry because she is also willing to take calculated risks. This is evident in the diverse content she has produced which tackles various issues society continues to grapple with. What this means is Parry’s work will continue to be important as it provides another outlet for society to have conversations about burning issues such as mental health while allowing fans to become “even bigger fans” of their favorite artists.

October 30, 2018

VARIETY: Heather Parry’s Live Nation Productions Is Booming With ‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘Believer,’ More

By Jem Aswad | October 30, 2018

 

How does Heather Parry, president of Live Nation Productions, operate? A telling example comes in answer to a question about how her company became involved with “A Star Is Born,” the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga vehicle that is already one of the biggest films of the year.

“I know Bradley, and as soon as I heard he was going to direct it I called his agent, Dave Bugliari, who was on a ski lift at the time,” she recalls. “I said, ‘How does Live Nation get involved with this movie? We have venues and festivals and concert tours and all these assets and ways we can help you market,’ and he was like ‘I’m on a ski lift!,’” she laughs. “But to his credit, he called me right back and then talked to Bradley. Then I went to a dinner party for Martha Stewart at Bill Gerber’s house — he’s one of the producers of the film — and while everybody was talking to Martha about her recipes, I was in the corner pitching Bill on ‘A Star Is Born.’ We had meetings and showed them our media marketing deck and how passionate we were about it, and here we are.”

In short, she’s like a living LinkedIn profile with a relentless drive who rarely lets an opportunity pass, and she’s brought that energy to Live Nation Productions, the film and television division of the live-entertainment giant, which she launched quietly in December of 2015. Since then, the company has turned out the Sean “Diddy” Combs documentary “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story”; the Lady Gaga doc “Five Foot Two”; “Believer,” about Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds’ relationship with the Mormon church and its stance on LGBTQ issues; the Eagles of Death Metal doc “Nos Amis”; as well as the scripted film “The After Party,” starring Wiz Khalifa, French Montana and Teyana Taylor.

In the pipeline are films on pop singers Noah Cyrus (Miley’s sister) and Kim Petras (a trans artist), as well as its first television-series project “From Cradle to Stage,” based on the book written by Virginia Hanlon Grohl, mother of Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl, which includes stories from other musician moms including Dr. Dre’s mother Verna Griffin, Janis Winehouse, Marianne Stipe, and others.

“Heather’s presence alone commands your full attention,” Combs says of Parry. “She is brilliant, driven, and hungry to do big things — so it’s no surprise that she keeps pushing the bounds of creativity with her work.”

All of the works have unconventional angles — or at least an angle beyond a straight biopic — and most of those angles came about after Parry’s team had begun work on the films.

“For ‘Can’t Stop,’ I was with [Combs] at the rehearsal space for the [2016] Bad Boy 20th anniversary tour when Faith Evans and Lil Kim came in,” Parry recalls. “I was like, ‘This is more than a tour — this is a reunion, and this film is about the story of Bad Boy.’ And for ‘Believer,’ Dan Reynolds originally pitched me a different idea about him growing up in Las Vegas, but [director] Don Argot called me saying, ‘We want to do a different story: We want to talk about Dan growing up Mormon, and how the church has to change their LGBTQ stance,’ and I said ‘That’s fantastic.’ Every doc does not start out the way the final product ends up.”

Parry’s power base is her formidable list of contacts, which began during her dozen years at MTV. She started out as a 22-year-old at MTV News, rising to become its West Coast Bureau Chief — producing “The Week in Rock,” among other projects — and then segued into film development and production, where she produced “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” (starring 50 Cent) and the remake of the ’70s football flick “The Longest Yard,” starring Adam Sandler. Also in that role, she acquired the first “Twilight” manuscript, but MTV parent Viacom did not see the potential of the franchise — which ended up raking in billions of dollars — and ultimately the rights were sold to Summit Entertainment. She left MTV in 2005 to become head of film at Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, where over the next 10 years she produced “The House Bunny,” “Just Go with It” and “Pixels.” Days after she started at Live Nation, Colin Hanks (whom she’d met during her years at Happy Madison) pitched her on the Eagles of Death Metal film — during her birthday party — and her first project at the company was underway.

Over the past three years, she has learned to maximize Live Nation’s battery of assets to promote music-related films, which were exploited fully for “A Star Is Born.”

“Live Nation owns over 100 music festivals,” Parry says, “so, for example, in between Dierks Bentley’s and Blake Shelton’s sets at Country LakeShake in Chicago, we ran a trailer for the film in front of 55,000 people. At other festivals we put up big posters, and we had the trailer running in the suites and concession stands, not to mention the support of their sponsorship and marketing teams. We also looked at Ticketmaster data: Who bought Gaga tickets and what else did they buy? If they also bought a Bruno Mars ticket, he did ‘Uptown Funk’ with Mark Ronson, who also wrote the ‘Star Is Born’ lead song with Gaga, so that gave us another set of fans to reach out to.”

Blair Rich, Warner Pictures president of worldwide marketing, says, “Heather and Live Nation were instrumental in expanding our global audience, helping us get the film into the hands of music fans throughout the world. She activated Live Nation’s venues around the globe, and tapped into their powerful data and social media. Our dynamic marketing partnership went far beyond their investment in the film.”

And over the past three years, Live Nation itself has become a story generator for Parry’s division: Because its offices also house Maverick Management, several of Parry’s projects were hatched without her having to leave the company grounds. “That’s how ‘Can’t Stop’ started — [Live Nation CEO] Michael Rapino called and said, ‘Hey, are you in the office? We’re having a Bad Boy tour meeting,’ so I walked over and jumped in,” she recalls. “That’s also how ‘Believer’ happened — they were in a meeting next door. Same with Gaga, I sit next to her manager, Bobby Campbell. Noah Cyrus’ manager, Adam Leber, is to my left. One day, I was burning a candle in my office and she walked in and said, ‘Hey, it smells really good in here, I’m Noah!’ and we started talking and the project developed from there.

“It’s a place where things are constantly happening,” she concludes. “Talk about synergy: You light a candle and an artist appears!”

 

 

 

 

Live Nation’s Heather Parry Talks Artist Driven Activism And Taking On Religion for Imagine Dragons’ Documentary ‘Believer’

Live Nation’s film and television division, Live Nation Productions is coming off an astounding reception of their latest documentary Believer at the Sundance Film Festival. Believer follows Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds as he grapples with his faith as a Mormon with the rising teen suicide rate in Utah, especially among the LGBTQ community.

Along with the openly gay lead singer of Neon Trees, Tyler Glenn who also grew up Mormon, the two struggle to create a concert that brings together the LGBTQ youth and Mormon faith since the church doubled down on its opposition to homosexual activity.

“Being the lead singer of Imagine Dragons gives (Reynolds) a voice to change things and to talk to the Mormon church and say ‘Hey guys you have to change your ways,’ said President of Production, Film, and Television at Live Nation Productions, Heather Parry. “For Believer, it was let’s go to Sundance because the ground is going to shake.”

Believer has been lauded as a standout at the festival, winning runner-up for the festival favorite award out of 123 films screened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfamZnKv04Y

The success of Believer follows the critical acclaim of Live Nation documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, which recently won NME’s Best Music Film award, and last year’s heart-wrenching, Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis, a depiction of the band’s return to Paris after their concert at Le Bataclan theater in 2015 was attacked by terrorists, killing 130 fans.

Launched in 2016, Live Nation Productions is run by Parry who headed to the music industry giant after years with MTV Films and most recently, Happy Madison. Parry left Happy Madison on a Friday and plunged into her role as the head of Live Nation Productions the following Monday.

“I didn’t announce that I was leaving Happy Madison and going to Live Nation,” Parry told Amplify. “I wanted to be a race horse with its blinders on and instead of telling people what I’m going to do, I wanted to just show them.”

Live Nation Productions hit the ground running with a feature-length concert film, 2016’s Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids, and has continued to evolve the types of films they are producing.

“I had a meeting with Michael Rapino and we talked about our love of certain films, tv shows, and documentaries. We talked about Straight Outta Compton and Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways,” Parry said. “Michael is always on the mission of artist-first and we both thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great if artists had an outlet for film, TV, and documentaries.’”

Live Nation Productions is now working on two feature films, Bradley Cooper-directed A Star is Born starring Lady Gaga and scripted comedy The After Party featuring Wiz Khalifa and French Montana. Parry also revealed to Amplify that they are in the process of editing a documentary that follows Noah Cyrus’s journey growing up in a famous family. We sat down with Parry to learn more about Live Nation Productions and where the division is headed.

How did Live Nation Productions land Believer?

Omar (Al-Joulani) from touring came to me and said Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons has this idea, would you have a meeting with him? He had pitched an idea about the different people you meet on Fremont Street in Vegas, because he had lived there and met the different characters in that area. As most artists are, you sit in a room with Dan and he was very passionate and excited about what they are talking about, so I said ‘Okay. Let’s try it.’

We hired Don Argott as the director and as they were shooting they changed the idea. They called me and they said, ‘This is what we think it is.’ And I said, ‘I love that.’ Dan wanted to tell his story of how he was fed up with how high the teen suicide rate was for LGBTQ teens in Utah and he wanted to make a difference. It was all of these things combined, the saving lives, music healing, being an outlet for people and Dan being able to relate to the story since he grew up Mormon.

I think the stuff that we have done is so different. The Eagles of Death Metal doc is so different from the Bad Boy Puffy doc we did which was different from Lady Gaga. And this is really different. It’s great to give artists that kind of outlet.

Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis was also a really impactful film that you were a part of. How did that come to Live Nation Productions?

I’m so grateful that that was our first documentary. I knew the director, Colin Hanks really well and he was really good friends with the band. That story needed to be told to heal people, to heal the band and to heal fans. I’m glad that that was our first because we’re not making electronic press kits, telling you how great our work is. We’re going ‘Hey, there are some really great moments in this journey, but there is also fear and hard work and it’s intense.’

I made House Bunny (2008) at Happy Madison with Colin. I told him I left Happy Madison and said I’m starting this production company with Live Nation and I really want to do music-based content. I wanted to do really cool stories about artists and their journeys. Colin wanted to tell the story about how when life knocks you down and you have to get back up. The Eagles of Death Metal went back to Paris to heal and when Colin started making the film it turned into the journey about their incredible friendship. It wasn’t just the music that healed them, it was the friendship. He needed a small amount of money to go and do it and I said ‘We’ll pay for that.’ He left for Paris right after that.

So far Live Nation Productions has dealt with issues like religion, LGBTQ suicide, terrorism, PTSD, etc. Is it safe to say you aren’t afraid of controversial topics?

Yeah. No fear. When you’re starting something new, you ask yourself ‘What’s the goal here?’ When we were doing (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: Bad Boy Story), Puffy kept playing his mantra from Nina Simone that kept repeating “No fear” and “You know what I think freedom is, it’s having no fear.” I would hear it because he would play it 100 times a day. I’m really proud when I look at the different moves we’ve made at Live Nation Productions. Believer will be our fourth one and I think people are starting to take notice.

Live Nation Productions started with a concert film with Justin Timberlake and has moved towards more involved storytelling. Is that a progression we should expect to see more of?

One hundred percent. We have a bunch of stuff that we are working on now. We have a comedy coming out on Netflix called The After Party. It is sort of like a hip-hop Superbad. It has cameos from French Montana and DJ Khalid. It is very different from A Star is Born, but again it is artist-based content.

Is the plan to always have a music component to your projects?

Whenever I watch a film, whether it is the score or the song I think the music is important to the film in general. We’re listening to the artist and we’re listening to the audience. That will determine what we make.

Live Nation Productions has already worked with various distributors. How do you choose where to take the material?

That’s the great part of Live Nation Productions on the documentary front. We funded those documentaries. When it came time, Puff and I went to different outlets, spoke to different people, and showed different people the movie. Because of what Apple was going to do and the way they were going to support it, we picked Apple. We also love Jimmy Iovine and Larry Jackson. They had a really great plan.

After we had made Gaga, we showed it to a couple of buyers and Netflix came with the strongest marketing plan. And that’s where you get to go, whether your partner is Puff or whomever. Colin ended up directly calling HBO and saying ‘I think you guys should watch this.’ It is being able to make something that the artist, the director, and Live Nation all feel really good about and then figuring out where the best place for it is. You get to focus on the film instead of what release date they are going to give us or something.

There has been a diversity in your projects as well. Has that been strategic?

Absolutely. Diversity exists in music so beautifully already. It is not something that I feel someone needs to overthink. It is beautifully and naturally happening. I love that I had Puff who is all about black excellence and there you went right to Lady Gaga who is an amazing strong female. It was a natural progress. Of course you want to work with those people. I think about this stuff because on one side of my office is Bobby Campbell, Lady Gaga’s manager and on the other side is Adam Leber, who is Miley Cyrus’ manager. Working at Live Nation is a mix of people and artists.

Working in the Live Nation office, do you feel you have a lot of access to music people and artists?

Adam Leber also manages Noah Cyrus who liked the way my office smelled one day because of a candle. She was 17 and wouldn’t stop talking and was smart and she just had a single come out. She played our lobby next door so I went to go see it and she was great. So I said ‘Let’s do something with Noah.’ As great as it is to have the legends like Puff and Gaga, how great is it to also show a 17 year-old girl who is just starting? We’re avoiding boxes. We’re editing it now, but the Noah stuff turned out great. It is everything from her tour to the house that Billy Ray first bought where there are beautiful horses and her cow. We follow her to the high school where her parents first met and the Cyrus family graveyard. Noah is also the kind of story we want to tell, because why not. It’s her journey.

What can we expect next from Live Nation Productions?

This year will be our jump into two features, The After Party at Netflix and A Star is Born at Warner Bros. Believer will be out some time in June around gay pride. All those things are very different moves from what our slate looked like last year. I want it to keep growing and evolving. We will always do documentaries because there will always be artist stories, but artists also want to do features. They have a book they like or a story they want to tell. What I would expect from us is that No Fear factor.

Amplify