Friday, January 23, 2015

Around the Tubes: 1/23/15


I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on The Sound of Music, Wicked Tuna, Legend of Lead Belly, Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts, Motown 25, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Dreamcatcher, One Big Happy, and Hulu news.

- Hollywood will come alive with The Sound of Music (1965) this spring as the beloved, Oscar®-winning classic returns to the big screen to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala opening-night screening on Thursday, March 26 at the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival. Legendary stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer will join Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theater IMAX to introduce the beautifully restored film and kick off the sixth annual festival, which will run March 26-29, 2015, in Hollywood. The film is being presented in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox, in celebration of their Golden 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release arriving on March 10, 2015. TCM has also announced that Delta Air Lines is returning once again as the festival's exclusive Founding Partner. The official airline partner of the TCM Classic Film Festival, Delta has provided air travel for many of the festival's VIP guests every year since the festival began.

- Last year, millions of viewers watched as one Gloucester captain dominated and outmaneuvered the entire fleet despite a difficult fishing season. But this season, the fish are larger, the competition is tougher and the top spot on the leaderboard is up for grabs once again. Wicked Tuna returns with an all-new season of peril and paydays on the high seas beginning Sunday, Feb. 15, at 9:00 on National Geographic Channel in the U.S., and will air internationally on National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and in 45 languages.

- Lead Belly has inspired generations of musicians, from The Weavers to the Grateful Dead, from Van Morrison, to The Beach Boys and even Nirvana. And yet few people today know his remarkable story, and even fewer know when they are listening to his music. His story is told in the new one-hour Smithsonian Channel special, Legend of Lead Belly, premiering Monday, February 23 at 8:00.

- Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts are partnering with PledgeMusic to release their upcoming album, Blaster due on March 31st. Weiland, along with his bandmates guitarist Jeremy Brown, bassist Tommy Black, and drummer Danny Thompson, who have toured together for years, are coming to PledgeMusic to deepen fan engagement during the music making journey and giving fans an inside look at the process. After their highly successful Purple At The Core tour in 2013, the musicians hunkered down in Weiland's Southern California studio and rehearsal space to write and record what would eventually become the rock album, quickly conjuring a fertile creative chemistry.

- Where were you when Michael Jackson unveiled his iconic moonwalk for the very first time as part of the legendary TV special Motown 25: Yesterday · Today · Forever? You likely remember those "six seconds that changed the world", as the historic concert televised by NBC on May 16, 1983, became an immediate sensation and water-cooler event in an era before social media. Now, music lovers and pop culture aficionados alike will have the opportunity to see magic and history being made as the Emmy® Award-winning program will air exclusively as a fundraising event on public television stations this February and March, marking the first TV broadcast of the concert since its debut more than 30 years ago. It will make its national public broadcasting premiere on February 28 at 8pm ET & PT/7pm CT (check local listings).

- As Hollywood prepares to celebrate the 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, host networks TNT and TBS are revving up plans to make this year's ceremony an exceptional digitally connected awards show. In addition to simulcasting the SAG Awards® live from the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, Jan. 25, the networks will have a team of social media correspondents and influencers to provide behind-the-scenes play-by-play before and during the ceremony using the hashtag #sagawards. In addition, TBS and TNT are once again teaming up with PEOPLE.com to present a live webcast of the SAG Awards Red Carpet Pre-Show, which will also include the announcement of this year's honorees for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Film and in a Television Series.

- Showtime Networks has acquired the rights to Dreamcatcher, the inspirational portrait of Chicago’s Brenda Myers-Powell whose Dreamcatcher Foundation fights to end human trafficking and to prevent the sexual exploitation of at-risk youth. The documentary was acquired before its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off today.

- Elisha Cuthbert, Nick Zano and Kelly Brook star in an all-new comedy about an unconventional family, One Big Happy premiering Tuesday, March 17 at 9:30 on NBC.


- Hulu has greenlit an order for a long-form comedy series from Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) and RocketJump, the three companies announced today. The series will be produced by RocketJump in association with Lionsgate Television and will stream exclusively on Hulu. Fresh off the Season 3 success of RocketJump’s YouTube series Video Game High School, the new Hulu original will expand upon the global success of Freddie Wong and RocketJump’s short films. Each half-hour episode of the series will chronicle the filmmaking behind RocketJump’s newest short. The eight full episodes will be released exclusively on Hulu on a weekly basis and the newly-created shorts will premiere exclusively on Hulu as well.

- Hulu today announced the launch of Toyota AdZone, an annual experience that brings the best in Super Bowl advertising to one place. Now in its fifth year, Toyota AdZone will host one of the most comprehensive libraries of Super Bowl ads past and present, and will allow fans to vote in real-time for their favorite game day commercial.

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