At the end of a long, powder-blue hallway snaked with electrical cords and stacked with a movie camera, actors and a dozen production assistants, Tim McGraw leaned in a corner of a Nashville movie studio and let out a loud yawn.

It was about 8 a.m. on a Saturday, and McGraw had performed in Lexington, Ky., the night before. He flew in specifically to film a single scene for his new movie, Love Don’t Let Me Down, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund. After that was done, he would hop on another plane and fly to Michigan for a show that night.

“It’s busy,” McGraw said, his weary eyes showing the strain. Indeed, as soon as his scene was finished, he left the set.

Writer/director Shana Feste (one of Variety’s “10 directors to watch” in 2009) and veteran producer Jenno Topping (the Charlie’s Angels movies, 28 Days, The Brady Bunch Movie) wanted McGraw in their movie badly enough that they were willing to film it in Nashville. (To help secure his participation, the location had to be within an easy driving distance of his home to accommodate his touring schedule and family obligations.)

Of course, the team didn’t choose to film in Nashville just to make McGraw’s life easier. Filming here helped ensure authenticity in regard to music, musicians and locations. Plus, according to Topping, the state’s film and television incentive program was just too good to pass up.

Fifth star is Nashville

“I always wanted to shoot the movie in Nashville, because the script starts and ends in Nashville,” Feste said between shots. But “it wasn’t until I met with Tim that it started to become a reality, because he got the film commission on board, and they really fought to have the film come here.”

Once the production crew was here, Feste said, Nashville’s film and music community quickly became the fifth star of the movie. Well more than 100 local actors, songwriters, musicians and day players have had a hand in the making of Love Don’t Let Me Down. A host of local songwriters, including Liz Rose, Hillary Lindsey, Luke Laird, Jennifer Hanson, Mark Nesler, Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Josh Kear, Chris Tompkins and Hillary Scott, have had a hand in writing songs for the movie.

Music producers Nathan Chapman, Frank Liddell and Byron Gallimore produced the songs for each of the artist characters played by Meester, Hedlund and Paltrow. (McGraw does not sing in this movie — he plays Paltrow’s manager husband.) Local musicians Jim Lauderdale, Bucky Baxter, Chris Scruggs and John Bohlinger all appear on screen.

“We’ve gotten to work with all these amazing, wonderful musicians and songwriters that lend so much credibility to this movie,” Feste said. “That really is the coolest feeling, to know there are beautiful songs that exist in this world because of something I wrote.”

Songwriter Marshall Chapman, who makes her acting debut as Paltrow’s tour manager, Winnie, was overwhelmed by the entire experience. “I had never even been in a school play,” she said. “I was stunned, and probably a little gaga.

“Tim’s been a gas — he’s been great to work with,” Chapman added. “And I did a scene with Gwyneth, and I described it as playing tennis with somebody who is really a lot better than you are. It elevates your game. It was the easiest scene I did.

“I could end up on the cutting-room floor in this movie, and I don’t care. … I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. I’m in.”

Love, fame and music

The movie, a romantic drama, stars Paltrow as a popular yet troubled country singer named Kelly Canter. Canter is in a rehab facility (filmed at Barbara Mandrell’s former home, Fontanel) when she falls for Hedlund’s character, Beau Hutton, an employee at the facility with aspirations of country music stardom. Canter’s husband, James (played by McGraw), checks the still-fragile singer out of the facility to embark on a music tour. Meester’s character, country newcomer Chiles Stanton, is being mentored by James, who wants to book her as the opening act. Kelly, however, wants the spot to go to Hutton. In the end, all three go on tour together.

Canter’s emotional fragility and the developing attractions among the four principals, set against the backdrop of the tour, form the fabric of the movie.

“I think what inspired me was the theme of fame and love, and how I think it’s hard for fame and love to coexist,” Feste said. “And how the public can be so cruel to celebrities who have given them so much.

“We love to build them up just to knock them back down again, and what a difficult life that must be. I wanted to write something within that world. I also love country music and think it is the most romantic setting for a love story, and something that would be really high stakes.”

Feste said she chose the actors based on her perception of who could best execute her complicated, three-dimensional characters. It was also important to her to employ people who could perform their own songs — a nod to the authenticity she tried to achieve throughout the production.

“I think people will be blown away by our actors’ vocal performance,” she said. “I think music lovers will love this movie. We have really put our heart into this soundtrack.

“I could not be more proud of the songs on this movie. I think people who enjoy country music and a good old-fashioned love story will love this.”

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All of the old favorites were there: the light cycles, light discs, the battle ships and the spectacular recognizers. Can I use the word “sexy” to describe this trailer? Yes, I can! It is as if, the director of Tron Legacy, Joseph Kosinski, physically took the cast and crew into this video game and began to shoot a movie. It looks that good! A world that is a mix between The Matrix meets, well… Tron. This got the audience really excited for the upcoming sequel. But the audiences excitement quickly turned into disappointment when the release date was revealed at the very end. December 17th 2010 is the official release date for Tron Legacy.

This begs the question: Why did Disney have this event in the first place? The trailer was going to be released next week in front of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. The movie isn’t coming out for another 10 months. How soon is too soon to create hype? I guess it’s never too soon to create hype considering this movie was featured at The San Diego Comic Con for the last 3 years. And with the success with Avatar and Avatar Day, maybe Disney would benefit from the very early buzz. Even if it was for only 2 and a half minutes. And only played once. I guess any press IS good press.

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Yes, it was just a trailer. A teaser trailer. But *what* a teaser trailer.

Spoilers warning!

* We open on some very The Dark Knight imagery of a helicopter on top of the Encom building. The footage of Garrett Hedlund as Sam (fils-de Jeff Bridges) Flynn. He’s on a motorcycle, zooming around. Next he’s talking to Alan One himself, Bruce Boxleitner, looking a lot like one of the great That Guys, Bruce Davison.

* Alan One tells Flynn the Younger he’s tried to find his father, but, dammit, he’s gone! Next Flynn the Younger goes to the boarded up Flynn’s Arcade. In a feat of metatextuality, the actual TRON coin-op game is there. He puts in a quarter, but it doesn’t take. It falls on the floor. If I were a smarter man, I’d read all sorts of Freudian symbolism in this. While putzing around on the floor, he moves the game, finds a hole in the wall (much like the San Diego Comic-Con fake arcade) and enters a spooky lab-OR-atory.

* He sits at the desk, plays around with a cool looking computer and – guess what? Right behind him is the laser that the MCP used to zap Jeff Bridges in the original.

* Blackout.

* Then we see a GIANT EFFING AWESOME Recognizer facing down a human. It has a red, menacing trim. Then a blast of quick imagery flew by. I’m pretty sure I saw Sam Flynn behind the wheel of a Recognizer and I saw Jeff Bridges leading a band of “programs.” Also: a quick shot of Olivia Wilde that proved this film had intense, private rewatch value. We did not see the MCP. But, there was also one shot of a lightcycle heading toward a cityscape that looked phenomenal.

* After the “coming this December” (note – the title treatment for Tron Legacy was a little different than from what we’ve seen so far) there was a really short tag – it was of one lightcycle smashing into another and everyone around me went “coooooool.”

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Nashville-based charity Soles4Souls to collect shoes at event for distribution in Haiti

Nashville, TN (January 20, 2010) –Great American Country TV star Storme Warren will host a concert event on Tuesday, February, 2, 2010 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium when Screen Gems films a climactic scene for the feature film Love Don’t Let Me Down, starring Oscar®-winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Best Actress, Shakespeare in Love, 1998) and Superstar Tim McGraw.

Audience members receive the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appear in a film as well as hear some great music, including live acoustic sets by the band The Lost Trailers (which will open for part of Tim McGraw’s upcoming “Southern Voice” tour).

Admission is Free and participants must be at least eighteen-years-old.

The scene filmed will be the moment when superstar Kelly Canter, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, wows them at her big comeback concert. Playing Kelly’s opening acts are Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy), who, like Paltrow, will perform original songs written by some of Nashville’s hottest composers.

The actors will sing to pre-recorded playback as part of the filmmaking process. Other acts will perform live.

Tim McGraw, who will welcome the crowd, plays the non-singing role of Kelly’s husband-manager. He hails the concert as “an opportunity country fans won’t want to miss. Gwyneth, Leighton and Garrett are sensational singers, the songs are great and the scene is really exciting. They’ll also get the chance to hear my friends The Lost Trailers before we begin our tour on February 11th.”

Throughout the event, Storme Warren will keep things hopping by introducing musical acts and distributing special prizes.

The producers have invited Nashville-based charity SOLES4SOULS to be their partner in the event. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring pairs of new or slightly worn shoes (banded or tied together) that the charity will collect at the event to support the Haitian relief efforts. The Soles4Souls website is www.giveshoes.org

Guests will be admitted to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium (417 Fourth Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37201) at 4PM. THEY SHOULD PLAN TO STAY UNTIL 11PM if possible.

The Lost Trailers will perform at 4:30pm!!

FREE PARKING will be provided at Lot R at Titans LP Field (462 1st Street Nashville TN 37213) at the base of the Shelby Street Bridge. FREE SHUTTLES TO THE VENUE AND BACK TO PARKING WILL BE PROVIDED.

It is requested but not required for admittance that everyone with a serious interest in the event e-mail freefilmconcert@gmail.com indicating the number of seats they are interested in obtaining.

The producers are seeking approximately 2000-2500 participants who will be admitted first-come-first-served.

Concession stands will be open and available throughout the evening.

Picture taking will not be allowed.

Love Don’t Let Me Down is directed by Shana Feste from her original screenplay. Her first feature The Greatest, starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon, was highly praised at last year’s Sundance Festival.

Tobey Maguire and Jenno Topping are producing via Maguire Entertainment.

Soon after a rising young singer-songwriter (Hedlund) gets involved with a fallen, emotionally unstable country star (Paltrow), the pair embarks on a career resurrection tour helmed by her husband-manager (McGraw) and featuring a beauty-queen-turned-singer (Meester). Between bookings, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all.

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gwyneth paltrow, garrett hedlund (you might remember him from georgia rule. or you might not.) and whole cast of friends and characters were spotted having dinner and drinks at patterson house in nashville, tn, on tuesday evening, january 12.

“there were maybe twenty of them, and she was the only really recognizable one, but we could tell the whole group must have been a fame crew even before we saw her, because they were all wearing fedoras or crazy hair.  they looked like, you know, somebodies.”

paltrow looked relaxed in a loose ponytail and denim jacket.  they enjoyed a meal at a big table in the back, and afterwards mingled in group, laughing a lot.

“they’re very easygoing, and very friendly.  they come here a lot, and a lot of bands, because of the low-key atmosphere, and because there is a list to get in. they know they won’t be bothered.” said a source who works there.

paltrow and two other friends left around 11 pm; the rest of the crew rolled out around 11:30.

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Screen Gems is filming the climactic scene of Love Don’t Let Me Down, a movie that stars Paltrow as an emotionally unstable country singer and McGraw as her manager, on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at Municipal Auditorium, 417 Fourth Ave. N.

The film folks are in need of an audience for a scene in which (spoiler alert) Paltrow wows the crowd with a stirring performance.

McGraw won’t likely be singing, but he will greet the crowd. And The Lost Trailers will play a set beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund (who starred with McGraw in 2004’s Friday Night Lights) will also be there, singing to pre-recorded tracks. Great American Country’s Storme Warren will serve as host, and Nashville-based charity Soles4Souls will be collecting shoes for distribution to Haiti.

What else? Well, admission is free. Extras must be at least 18 years of age. There will be a free shuttle from Lot R at LP Field. Doors at Municipal will open at 4 p.m., and extras are expected to be be able to stay until at 11 p.m. Producers are looking for 2,000–2,500 extras, and will admit people on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Odessa’s stint as the movie-making hub of the Permian Basin ended this weekend.
Local filming for “Friday Night Lights” ended Saturday morning as the production’s second unit wrapped its last night of all-night shooting at Ratliff Stadium.
The first unit, which films the stars and principal scenes, wrapped Thursday.
The crew now moves to Houston where on Monday it will begin shooting the movie’s climax in the Astrodome.
Publicist Ernie Malik said the first unit will shoot for about a week and the second for about two weeks. Shooting is scheduled to wrap April 15.
Malik said the film would then go to Los Angeles for post-production. The movie is slated for release Oct. 15.
“They have something they think the town’s going to be proud of,” Malik said.
For the three weeks they were here, the cast and crew spent their off time kicking back in Odessa’s bars and restaurants.
“It was exciting,” Barnaby’s manager Tamara Moersch said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, saying ‘I saw him. I talked to him.’ ”
Moersch said at a wrap party last Sunday night the cast and crew packed the bar with about 150 people.“It was a blast,” Moersch said. “They drank us out of everything.”
Moersch said despite giving last call at 2 a.m., “at 2:30 it was still wall-to-wall. They didn’t want to leave.”
Nancy Massey, who owns the Oasis Bar and Grill, said the the cast and crew frequented her place. She said the bar was a little lighter when the crew left, too.
“They drank more Petrona (tequila) than I’ve seen in a year,” Massey said. “They went through almost a year’s worth of tequila in three weeks.”
Raymone Allen, a waiter for the Oasis, said the filmmakers often brought a party atmosphere with them.
“There’s a couple of them who would liven up the crowd some,” Allen said. “Garrett (Hedlund, who plays fullback Don Billingsley), he would go up and do karaoke all the time. He’d get up there and sing at night.”
Local stargazers sometimes packed the star hangouts as well.
“It was our job to keep the fans away,” Massey said. “When they’re all in here it’s just like a zoo.”
Massey and Zucchi’s Ristorante owner Larry Burdette said they wanted the crew members to not have to worry about hoards of autograph hounds, even those in their employ.
“The staff was really cool about it,” Burdette said. “They said ‘Let’s don’t bother these people.’ ”
For the employees at the restaurants who got a chance to know some of the “Friday Night Lights” crew, the movie makers turned out to be very human.
Oasis hostess Brandy Barnett, who also was an extra in the film, said the movie’s stars were in reality very down-to-earth.
“They’re really nice, wonderful to talk to,” she said. “They’re just like normal people. Just getting to know them makes me think no one’s really different from anybody else.”
Massey said actor Billy Bob Thornton, who plays Permian coach Gary Gaines, couldn’t have been any more normal.
“He’d sit at the bar and have his Budweiser just like everybody else,” Massey said.
He just happened to be a big tipper as well. Massey said the staff members who delivered room service would fight to make delivery to Thornton’s room for the tips.
Massey said everyone she met from “Friday Night Lights” was very polite.
“I think the general consensus was they were the nicest bunch we’d ever had in here en masse,” she said.
Burdette agreed.
“It was just fun. We didn’t have to do anything special for them. They didn’t ask for anything special. They were just good patrons,” he said.
“The people themselves, they’re good people. We had some great times with these guys,” Burdette said. “I hope they make a ‘Friday Night Lights 2.’ ”

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Mark Wahlberg is looking to star and hatched the sequel idea with original writers David Elliot and Paul Lovett, who are writing the script. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is back to produce.

In the 2005 release, the Mercer brothers – hotheaded Bobby (Wahlberg), hard-edged Angel (Tyrese Gibson), family man and businessman Jeremiah (André Benjamin), and hard rocking Jack (Garrett Hedlund) – reunite to take the matter of their adoptive mother’s death into their own hands. As they track down the killer, they quickly realize that their old ways of doing business have new consequences.

Plot details for the follow-up are being kept under wraps.

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Mark Wahlberg eyeing a return to star and hatched the sequel idea with original writers David Elliot and Paul Lovett, who are writing “Five.” Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is back to produce.

The 2005 movie, directed by John Singleton, revolved around four adopted brothers (Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund) who come together to avenge their mother’s death in what at first appears to be a random robbery. Although not a massive hit, it still grossed a tidy $74 million in domestic boxoffice.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, and it is not clear which of the other actors, if any, would return. Hedlund would appear to be out, as his character was killed in the first movie.

Wahlberg, repped by WME and Leverage Entertainment, stars in Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” and appears in “Date Night” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey.

Elliot and Lovett, repped by Verve and Category 5 Entertainment, were writers on “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” Paramount’s tentpole hit this past summer.

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