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Thursday, July 4, 2013 Capital NewsC
CAPITAL NEWS
ENTERTAINMENT ARMIE HAMMER (left) and Johnny Depp star in The Lone Ranger.
CONTRIBUTED
▼ MOVIE PREVIEWS
Principals take pay cuts to make The Lone Ranger
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ne would think that the team behind The Pirates of the Carribbean would get a definitive “greenlight” if they wanted to re-ignite another franchise. However, Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski had the brakes put on The Lone Ranger back in 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures due to budget concerns. After the trio decided to take pay cuts and the budget was reworked, the production went ahead last year. True to form, Depp does not play the title character but rather his partner Tonto, an American Indian spirit warrior who recounts the tale of John Reid, a lawyer and ex-Texas Ranger who becomes the masked vigilante on a quest to find his brother’s killers. Along the way, The Lone Ranger is recruited by Tonto to bring justice to those responsible for destroying his tribe’s villages. Armie Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) is the man in the
MOVIE GUY
Rick Davis mask and Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables) plays Red Harrington, a brothel madam who assists them. In the world of animation, Disney and DreamWorks have always been the leaders, but when Despicable Me came out three years ago, the balance of power shifted significantly. Illumination Entertainment (distributed by Universal Pictures) was formed in 2007 and in 2010, its modestly budgeted (for an animated film) Despicable Me became a $540 million worldwide hit. Illumination’s next two movies, Hop & Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax were also money-makers and it also worked with Universal to create Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, a hugely successful 3-D ride at Universal Stu-
dios Florida. Despicable Me 2 is now out and it looks like Illumination has done it again with Steve Carell returning as the voice of the villainous(?) Gru. This time, Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal. However, the plot is secondary to the antics of Gru, his adopted daughters and, of course, his Minions. As well as Carell, there are the voice talents of Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand, Benjamin Bratt, Ken Jeong, Steve Coogan and co-directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud as the voices of the Minions. Illumination is not sitting on its laurels. A spinoff starring Gru’s Minions is already in the works and is set for release next year. Also in the works with director Tim Burton is a stop-motion animated film based upon The Addams Family cartoons by Charles Addams and an adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ Flanimals books into a feature film. Rick Davis is the GM of Landmark Cinemas 8 in West Kelowna.
Kelowna • Penticton • Salmon Arm • Valleyview Rutland • West Kelowna • Vernon • North Kamloops • Sahali
CHRIS BOTTI returns to perform at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery on July 12. CONTRIBUTED
Venue seals trumpeter’s return Jennifer Smith STAFF REPORTER
By his own admission, not everyone can afford to share a stage with jazz trumpeter Chris Botti. Having played at the White House, for the President of the United States, not every venue is going to strike a chord for him either. Thankfully, Mission Hill Family Estate Winery has such an intoxicating ambiance—fabulous sound at the outdoor amphitheatre and an unmatched view of Okanagan Lake—it earned Kelowna an encore performance the moment Botti learned he could return for a visit July 12. “I’m not very good at multi-tasking. I’m good at one thing—being out there playing for people—and I’m good with that,” he said as he explained how a packed touring schedule takes him from Italy to New York with little room for smaller cities like this one. Some 300 days a year, Botti can be found work-
ing a talent honed through years playing with Paul Simon, in Sting’s band and with some of the world’s preeminent musical talents as his own band leader. “My bucket list is really, really short,” he admits. (Though, sharing a stage with Peter Gabriel is still a treat he looks forward to one day.) By and large, what gets Botti out of bed to play every day is the chance to woo an audience, craft sounds he didn’t know where possible and push his own boundaries as far as the world will let him take the four-and-a-half feet of brass beauty that rests in his hands each day. “You can’t take multiple days off. It’s much more like being a ballet dancer; it’s kind of that non-stop training and stretching so it looks like you’re not doing anything,” he explained. “It’s all to do with breath, stomach muscles, the jaw and the jaw muscles. It’s not like a piano in that way.”
Just like Sting, he’s an ardent yoga practitioner and just like Barbara Streisand, with whom he recently had the pleasure of working, he has a taste for perfection. “I just found her to be so musical and so allowing of the conductor to take control and not have any distance,” he said, when asked what it was like to work with a woman so revered by fans and musicians alike. Botti too deserves the kind of deference and recognition reserved for master craftsmen and women. Coming to fame in his 40s, the musician spent many years working his way up through the industry, living in New York hovels in order to perform—and he appreciates what he’s earned. “When I was able to pay the landlord that first month in New York, I literally thought I had won an Academy Award,” he said. Had he known the uphill battle he faced, he doubts he would have made it so far; but naiv-
ety payed him a favour. Today he can only think of two places he really hasn’t played—India and Vietnam—and he’s working on securing dates in both countries. Such are the spoils for those who are willing to risk it all to make sophisticated music reach the masses; it’s a road he worries young musicians aren’t willing to travel these days. “There’s no risk. A lot of it’s lip-synched,” he said. “I kind of wish people would just let go.” With pop stars tied to ear monitors and enough technological intervention to bleed the musicality right out of the average pop show, he says he’s drawn to those who are willing to actually go on stage and just play, mistakes and all. To hear Chris Botti’s finely-tuned horn dance across the Okanagan Valley on July 12 at Mission Hill Winery, visit selectyourtickets.com. jsmith@kelownacapnews.com Twitter: @jaswrites