“Spinning Gold” brings the stories of KISS and Donna Summer to the screen

The story of Casablanca Records was told by many – in books, articles, and larger-than-life characters who lived during the rock and disco days of power in the mid to late 1970s. Its rise as a successful manufacturer—home to KISS, Donna Summer, Village People, and Parliament Funkadelic—was short, fast, and big.

Founded in 1974 by Neil Bogart, who had had limited success as a record man at Buddha’s Records, a sub-brand of MGM that signed Gladys Knight and the Pips and Ohio Express, Casablanca had a reputation for excess. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll were the mantra of the day, certainly for the record company that contributed their first single extended to clubs and radio stations around the world – “Love to Love You, 17 Minutes in Summer,” produced by Giorgio Moroder and released For the first time in 1975.

As the legend goes: the record was played at a wild Hollywood party in Bogart, where it inadvertently repeated over and over until the host realized that, at 17 minutes, the song was long enough to record the soundtrack of pre-AIDS sex. The presence of – and probably coincided with the time period of their high cocaine levels.

Courtesy of Boardwalk Entertainment Group

One of Neil’s sons along with famous songwriter Evan Bogart (Rihanna’s song “SOS” and “Hello” Beyoncé), Tim Bogart thought a lot about his father’s short time on this earth (the elder Bogart died in 1982 in the year of cancer, And at that time disco fell out of fashion), and he worked hard to keep the story in screenplay form.

“Spinning Gold” was first released in 1990, and after many drafts, many castings and a decades-long search for the right director (the road that eventually led to Tim), it finally became a feature film that premiered on screen in Cannes. .

Neil Bogart plays Broadway star Jeremy Jordan and the roles listed are played by current music artists such as Lydsey (Gladys Knight), Tila Parks (Donna Summer), Jason Derulo (Ron Easley) and Wiz Khalifa (George Clinton). Comedians Sebastian Maniscalco also appear, playing Moroder, Jay Pharoah and Chris Redd. (The trailer premiered today, watch it below.)

Musically, the original songs were not used for the soundtrack, which will be released on Atlantic Records. The Bogarts – younger brother Evan who works as executive music producer along with Harvey Mason jr. , Head of the Recording Academy – New releases that show how these songs originated, from the show stage to the top of the Billboard charts.

Why did it take three decades to correct these six seismic years? Talk to Tim Bogart diverse about the development of the film.

How did you get yourself as a director?

We chose to tell the movie the way we wanted to tell the movie, which independently meant that was the only way to do it. Not necessarily because we were trying to protect or whitewash the story – I actually found my dad’s flaws to be some of the most amazing components of his character. I don’t really see them as flaws. He would never have achieved success without really being a player, in the most extreme sense of the word.

The film was mostly shot during the pandemic. How does that work?

When I decided to direct it, it was about three years ago, just as the independent film industry itself changed due to the banners and the way international pre-sales worked. Then, while we were shutting down funding, a global pandemic forced us to shut down everything, like the rest of the world. I don’t know: is this a month? two months? forever? In the end, we ended up realizing that it could go on forever and we packed everything away and waited until we had another chance to complete the picture.

“Hit Men: Powerbrokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business” really put the story of Casablanca Records on the map because it was so popular among those who worked in or aspired to the music industry. It was released in 1990, the year I first started writing the script. What do you think of the book?

Hit Men is funny. There is a scene in the book where he says, in essence, that the house that Neil Bogart lived in had completely burned down. And the way it was described is that it is like the hand of God that came down and wiped it off the ground. The writer is correct that there was a fire – I was in the house when it happened – but it was only the garage.

So you’re saying it’s embellished?

embellished for me. Yes, there was sex – before it was fatal; There was rock and roll. And trying to find someone who wasn’t taking drugs in the ’70s. I don’t pretend my dad didn’t do drugs. he did. I loved them. There are people who definitely have excesses. My dad was definitely one of them. But I don’t think that determined the story.

The movie is not about that. It’s just part of the fabric of these people’s lives. And what I think Hit Men has done is try to make it all about sex and drugs and rock and roll. What he didn’t do was celebrate any of the extraordinary accomplishments of the book’s characters, who were truly some of the most daring, brave, and innovative CEOs who have ever worked in our business.

Explain the thinking behind not using the original songs.

When you’re doing a movie about the absolute golden standards—these classics like “Lean on Me,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Rock and Roll All Nite,” and “Last Dance” — I feel like there’s nothing new to say. My vision has always been a message. Love for these artists. I wanted to understand where the songs came from and what the creative process was. This actually opened up a great board for us to play with because we weren’t saying, ‘These are the masters.’ We were saying these are the original moments of inspiration for these songs.

lazy picture loaded

Lady Daisy as Gladys Knight in Spinning Gold
Courtesy of Boardwalk Entertainment Group

You have actors repeating the greatness of KISS. Do you need to go to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley for their blessing?

Every artist I came into contact with—Jane Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Ice Freely, Donna’s husband Bruce Sodano, and George Clinton himself—were very supportive of the film. In fact, the people who play P Funk are the actual children and grandchildren of the original Funkadilex. You’re reaching out to these people to post for sure, but I haven’t made any promises to tell the story in a specific way. In the end, I think every one of them will be happy.

lazy picture loaded

Wiz Khalifa plays the Fancadile MP George Clinton in ‘Spinning Gold’
Courtesy of Boardwalk Entertainment Group

Will we see the infamous party where “Love to Love You” was born?

It’s a 100% true story and it’s in our movie.

What role was the most difficult to play?

My father without question. I couldn’t stand the person, and spoke to some extraordinarily cool actors who wanted to play him. I actually committed to looking at someone, and I had a complete panic attack that I made the bad decision that would drown out everything. When I heard about Jeremy Jordan, I googled his performance and saw the extraordinary talent and charisma he had, and the similarities between my father’s core. I jumped on a red eye to New York, did a secret read, and immediately threw it away. It was the smartest and best creative decision I’ve ever made.

Were you in conversations with Justin Timberlake at some point?

I developed the project with Justin a few years early. His music career has become too busy for us to figure out how to handle this schedule. And in the end, I decided that I was ready to go and that I wanted to take a different path from what we were talking about.

Sebastian Maniscalco as Giorgio Moroder was an unexpected choice.

Capturing comedy has been very important right from the start. With Sebastian, we kind of looked at what Cameron Crowe did so beautifully with Jimmy Fallon in “Almost Famous.” Didn’t really know it was Jimmy Fallon [Fallon played Stillwater manager Dennis Hope]But this is the wonderful essence of the human being that I felt. And only after you realize, this is Jimmy Fallon. I think that’s what people will say about Sebastian. I think they’re going to pick up on this funny character with that crazy accent – [Moroder is] A German in Italy writes in English – and he’ll love what he did. But it’s very much meant to be something you won’t understand until later.

What does gold spinning mean?

Refers to a number of things. My dad rotated the plates like a three-ring circus conductor at once – he had 20 in the air hoping they wouldn’t crash. Gold clearly denotes success in the music industry, as in records gold and money – his ability to create it even when he kept spending or lost it all. But “Spinning Gold” was really the art of someone who believed enough to keep going until he succeeded.

Is there any acknowledgment of sexism and misogyny at that time in the film? .

We really wrestled with this question because it’s a different time today. And there were early iterations of the story that went much deeper into sexuality. In the end, this is not the story I chose to tell. It’s not that we film it and don’t comment on it; We think we made a very honest story about time and people. But this specific ingredient, while incredibly important, is not something the movie itself says.

The soundtrack for “Spinning Gold” includes:

“The Last Dance” – Donna Summer
“I love you, baby” – Donna Summer
“Bad Girls” – Donna Summer
“Dim all the lights” – Donna’s Summer
“It’s Your Thing” – The Easley Brothers
“Oh Happy Day” – singers Edwin Hawkins
“The Midnight Train to Georgia” – Gladys Knight
“Give up the funk” – Parliament
“Mother’s connection” – Parliament
“Hey Baby” – The Five Steps
“One Toke Over The Line” – Brewer & Shipley
“There is no sunshine” – Bill Withers
“Lean On Me” – Bill Withers
Who is Bill Withers?
“Rock N Roll All Nite” – Kiss
“Shout out loud” – kiss
Beth – kiss
“Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” – Ohio players
“The Guardian of the Fatwa” – Sam al-Sham and the Pharaohs
“Ymca” – people of the village



(Visited 74 times, 1 visits today)

Related posts