Latest news with #ClintEastwood
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brenda Song says Disney blocked her from pursuing 'Gran Torino' role because of sexual assault scene: 'I was very upset'
Brenda Song's transition from Disney child star to Hollywood actress wasn't always so suite. The actress, 37, rose to prominence for her role as hotel heiress London Tipton on Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in the early 2000s, starring in a number of original films on the network (Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, Stuck in the Suburbs) before transitioning to more mature roles in such titles as David Fincher's The Social Network. While accepting Variety's Virtuoso Award at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, Song shared that her career path was not without obstacles due to her Disney background, revealing that she had been considered for a role in Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino — but Disney ultimately would not allow it due to a sexual assault scene. "The character had an intended sexual assault scene, so Disney nixed it,' Song said. 'And I was very upset but I was like, 'Okay, I guess it didn't work out.'' The 2008 thriller starred Eastwood as a disgruntled and prejudiced Korean War vet who forms an unlikely friendship with a Hmong teen (Bee Vang) after the latter reluctantly attempts to steal his treasured car. Disney actually had similar concerns about her role as Christy, a love interest of Andrew Garfield's Eduardo who has a sexually explicit scene in the film, in The Social Network, Song shared. But she pushed back, going directly to Gary Marsh, president and COO of Disney Branded Television, at the time. 'I was just like, 'I am an actor. When you hired me, I was not a hotel heiress. If I have ever done anything in my personal life to ever draw bad attention to your company, I understand. But this is the last season of the show, and this is the opportunity of a lifetime,'" Song shared. "And I was so fortunate, they were so supportive. They allowed me to do this film that truly changed my life.' Following her departure from Disney, Song appeared across episodes of Scandal, New Girl, Station 19, and Dollface. She also starred in movies like Changeland, where she met future husband Macaulay Culkin, and Secret Obsession. It was her recent turn in Gia Coppola's 2024 drama The Last Showgirl, starring opposite Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, that ushered in what many have hailed as the Brendaissance. Song told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that the role — as a fiery showgirl named Mary-Anne — marked a "beautiful turning point' in her career. 'I had literally just said to my mom and my partner, 'If the best of my career's behind me, I think I'm okay with that. I am really proud of what I've done,'' she recalled. 'And they're like, 'What are you talking about? You're 35 years old.' But I was at such a crossroads in my life.' Most recently, she appeared on Mindy Kaling's sports comedy series Running Point, which was renewed for a second season. As with The Last Showgirl, that experience "re-energized me and reminded me why I love doing what I do so much," Song said. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lalo Schifrin obituary
The career of the composer and conductor Lalo Schifrin, who has died aged 93, was incomparably rich and varied, spanning musical genres from jazz and classical to Latin American, funk, rock and avant garde. He conducted (among others) the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and composed music ranging from piano concertos and symphonies to an album of songs in the Aztec language for the tenor Plácido Domingo. When the Three Tenors staged their historic inaugural concert on the eve of the football World Cup final in Rome in 1990, it was Schifrin who created the musical arrangements, the first of his four collaborations with them. The recording of the event was declared to be the bestselling classical album of all time. But even if he had done none of this, Schifrin would have become a household name for his work as a composer of film and TV scores. He created a catalogue that places him alongside such renowned names in the field as John Barry, Michel Legrand or Ennio Morricone. His best-known composition was his thrillingly dramatic theme for Mission: Impossible, but he was also responsible for the soundtracks of four of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, and supplied musical backings for films starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. His music for Peter Yates's Bullitt (1968), set in San Francisco, brilliantly fused a tense rhythm track with stark brass interpolations, jazzy electric guitar and hair-raising strings, crystallising the film's aura of mystery and danger. It was a key moment in cementing the legend of its star, Steve McQueen, as the King of Cool. Schifrin, having already written music for the spy series The Man from UNCLE, originally devised the famous Mission: Impossible theme for its TV incarnation, which premiered on the CBS network on 17 September 1966 (coincidentally, this was within days of the launch of both The Monkees and Star Trek). Its throbbing rhythm instantly oozed danger and menace, and Schifrin built the tension with hectic Latin-flavoured percussion, blaring counterpointed brass and a solo flute. Its unusual 5/4 time signature helped to lodge it in the listener's brain. Appropriately for a show about secret agents, the theme's motif of two long beats followed by two short beats spells the letters 'M' and 'I' in Morse code. M:I's producer Bruce Geller subsequently commissioned Schifrin to write the music for his detective series Mannix. When Mission: Impossible was reborn as a film franchise in the 1990s, with Tom Cruise in the lead role of Ethan Hunt, Schifrin's work was part of the package. A dancefloor version of his theme tune by Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen from U2, coinciding with the 1996 Mission: Impossible film, reached the Top 10 in the UK and the US, and future film releases would feature reworkings of Schifrin's compositions by composers such as Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe. Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires. His father, Luis, was Jewish and his mother, Clara (nee Ester), a Catholic, and the young Lalo attended services in both faiths. Luis was a violinist and concertmaster with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón. Lalo described Clara, who also came from a musical family, as 'a great mother, a great housewife'. He began playing the piano when he was five, and studied with Enrique Barenboim, father of the conductor and concert pianist Daniel Barenboim. Later he was taught by the Ukrainian pianist Andreas Karalis, and tutored in harmony by the Argentinian composer Juan Carlos Paz. However, in his teens he was dazzled by jazz when he heard records brought in by his classmates at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. He described hearing Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie as 'like a religious conversion … it was the road to Damascus'. He went on to study law and sociology at the University of Buenos Aires, but at 22 he won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire. After studying with the French composers Olivier Messiaen and Charles Koechlin by day, he played jazz in Paris clubs at night, and also wrote musical arrangements for French record labels. His earnings enabled him to rent his own apartment rather than living in student lodgings. When he returned to Buenos Aires in 1956, he was invited to form a jazz big band for radio and TV work. After he attended a concert at the US embassy by Gillespie and the all-star State Department band, he performed with his own orchestra at a dinner for Gillespie. The latter invited him to come to the US, and by 1958 he had acquired a green card and was living in New York. He composed a suite, Gillespiana, and recorded it with Gillespie's band for the Verve label. According to Schifrin, it sold a million copies. He spent three years as the pianist in Gillespie's ensemble, writing another suite for him, The New Continent (1962). He also became a composer and arranger for Verve, working with artists including Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan. Verve's parent company was the movie giant MGM, and in 1963 Schifrin, with his wife Donna, moved to Los Angeles to write film scores. He made his Hollywood debut with Rhino! (1964), a drama about endangered white rhinos in Africa. It was the start of an astonishingly prolific career in film and television that would stretch without interruption into the 21st century. Schifrin's music accompanied a string of landmark cinema releases, including the McQueen vehicle The Cincinatti Kid (1965), Cool Hand Luke (with Newman, 1967), Richard Lester's period swashbuckler The Four Musketeers, and the second world war dramas Hell in the Pacific (1968) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976). He added shivering creepiness to The Amityville Horror (1979), and tackled the Redford prison drama Brubaker (1980) and cold war thriller The Fourth Protocol (1987). Schifrin also virtually became Eastwood's personal soundtrack provider. A jazz aficionado himself, Eastwood evidently felt a natural bond with the composer. Their partnership began with Coogan's Bluff (1968), and included Dirty Harry (1971) and three subsequent Dirty Harry instalments, as well as The Beguiled (1971) and Joe Kidd (1972). Don Siegel, director of Dirty Harry, also hired Schifrin for his films Charlie Varrick (1973) and Telefon (1977). In the 1990s, Schifrin began releasing his series of albums under the banner of Jazz Meets the Symphony. These featured orchestral arrangements of pieces by such titans of jazz as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and his mentor Gillespie, while also essaying jazzified versions of pieces by Mozart, Bach or Puccini. In 1998 he wrote the score for the buddy-cops comedy Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and the soundtrack album reached No 5 on the US charts. Schifrin also scored the two follow-up films in the Rush Hour series. He composed the score for the horror movie Abominable (2006), directed by his son Ryan Schifrin, and released the recording of it on his own Aleph label. In April 2025, Schifrin's last major work made its debut at the Teatro Colón. This was Long Live Freedom, a 35-minute symphony written with a fellow Argentinian composer, Rod Schejtman, and dedicated to their homeland. Schifrin won five Grammy awards, and was nominated for Oscars on six occasions. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, presented by Eastwood. In 2008, he published his autobiography, Mission Impossible: My Life in Music. He is survived by his wife, Donna (nee Cockrell), whom he married in 1971, and who managed his business affairs and record label, and their son, Ryan; and by two children, William and Frances, from his first marriage, to Sylvia Schor, which ended in divorce. Lalo (Boris Claudio) Schifrin, composer, musician and conductor, born 21 June 1932; died 26 June 2025
Times of Oman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times of Oman
'Mission: Impossible' theme creator Lalo Schifrin dies
Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine musician considered one of the most influential film composers of his generation and writer for the "Mission: Impossible" theme music, has died at the age of 93, various media across the United States reported on Thursday. Schifrin died in the morning, according to his sons Ryan and William. Schifrin, who lived in the United States, was also a pianist and conductor. Among his other works are: "The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and "Bullitt" (1968), both with Steve McQueen, Paul Newman's "Cool Hand Luke" (1968), and Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" (1971). But his creation for the 1960s "Mission: Impossible" television series — which inspired the theme of the massive film franchise starring Tom Cruise — is arguably his most famous work. Classical music background Born in Buenos Aires in 1932, Schifrin's father was the concertmaster of the capital's Philharmonic Orchestra. Early exposure to classical music shaped him, but as a teenager, Schifrin became more into jazz, which he later skillfully combined with classical element — a hallmark of his music for film and television. A pipe-smoker in his younger years and bespectacled with a mane of silver hair later, Schifrin was also given an honorary Oscar, presented by Clint Eastwood, for his lifetime of work in 2018.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mission Impossible theme composer, Lalo Schifrin, dies at 93
The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family announced. The Argentine musician's son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC's US partner CBS. Schifrin was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his name. He was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise. Schifrin's family said he "passed peacefully" surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of support. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician's "genius" compositions which "built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse". "We'll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense," it said in a post on X. The prolific artist - a composer, pianist and conductor - was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry. In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his "unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring". When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him "a lifetime of joy and creativity" and the award was "a culmination of a dream". "It is a Mission: Accomplished," he said at the time. Born into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz - later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. After a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and pop. His most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject "a little humour, lightness" to form a theme "that didn't take itself too seriously". The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.
BBC News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Lalo Schifrin: Mission Impossible theme composer dies aged 93
The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family Argentine musician's son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC's US partner was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise. Schifrin's family said he "passed peacefully" surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician's "genius" compositions which "built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse"."We'll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense," it said in a post on prolific artist - a composer, pianist and conductor - was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry. In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his "unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring".When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him "a lifetime of joy and creativity" and the award was "a culmination of a dream"."It is a Mission: Accomplished," he said at the into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz - later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject "a little humour, lightness" to form a theme "that didn't take itself too seriously".The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.
