A director talks about working with Shatner, Lee and Penny.
By Christine Champagne
William Shatner reportedly earned millions of dollars in stock options for starring in a series of Priceline.com commercials via Hill Holliday, New York. Was Phil Morrison, who directed the package that features Shatner crooning tunes such as "Age of Aquarius" and "Two Tickets to Paradise," compensated in a similar fashion? "I was paid the old-fashioned way. Stock options didn’t come up, but maybe that’s because I’m too naïve to think of those kinds of things," he laughs.
The opportunity to work with the Star Trek legend was more than enough payment for Morrison, who is represented by bicoastal Epoch Films. The 10-spot campaign has Shatner and his backup band performing renditions of classic songs, with Shatner weaving in plugs for Priceline.com, an Internet site on which you can bid on everything from airline tickets to groceries. (This isn’t unfamiliar territory for Shatner, who had recorded several cover tunes in the past.)
"We wanted it to seem like these were just taken out of an hour-long VH-1 Storytellers," says Morrison. To add to the realism, Morrison cast a backup band made up of real musicians, including Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein and Helium singer/guitarist Mary Timony. Morrison notes that the choice of backup band was crucial. "We didn’t want the band to be session-cat kind of people with bad jackets. We thought it would be nice for them to be good, real, interesting musicians, but at the same time making sure it didn’t become a joke. We didn’t want, ‘Oh, isn’t that funny that he’s got an eighteen-year-old guy with green hair playing with him?’"
Of all the songs performed, Morrison says that "Convoy" offered the most challenges. "I think ‘Convoy’ was the toughest to get through simply because it offered a lot of possibilities [for lyrical interpretation] for some reason. As I recall, we shot ‘Convoy’ more than some of the others."
Throughout the two-day shoot, Shatner was the consummate pro. "He was committed. He really knew the songs, and he definitely had a point of view about what he wanted to be like," says Morrison.
Starstruck
Morrison is used to working with celebrities. Upon graduation from New York University, where he majored in film, Morrison worked as an assistant to Robert De Niro for two years. "I would do whatever he needed. He decides that because he wants to record people talking in order to learn their accents that he wants the best field recorder, so I go figure it out and buy it," he recalls. "Or he and [director] Bernardo Bertolucci ate dinner in a restaurant in northern Italy fifteen years ago. Bertolucci is in Africa. See if you can track him down and find out the name of the restaurant."
De Niro gave Morrison two days off to shoot his first spot job: an ad for Deutsch, New York, promoting NBA Hoop Cards. Morrison has since become a high-profile commercial director, working with all sorts of big name stars—both real and imagined. Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, hired Morrison to direct famed advertising icon Buddy Lee in several Lee jeans commercials, including "Actress," which had Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar discussing what it’s like to work with Buddy Lee; and "Fans," in which Japanese admirers reach a Beatle-like frenzy when Buddy Lee comes into view.
On his collaboration with Buddy Lee, Morrison says, "He is sweet as can be, and serious about what he’s doing. He comes in, he does the work, and he doesn’t have a lot of demands." Conversely, L’il Penny was more demanding. Morrison worked with the star while shooting a Nike campaign featuring basketball player Penny Hardaway—and L’il Penny, his puppet alter ego—for Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore. "He needs a lot of attention. He’s
Judge Upholds Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Charge Against Alec Baldwin In “Rust” Shooting
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
In a ruling Thursday, state District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stood by her July decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin. She said prosecutors did not raise any factual or legal arguments that would justify reversing her decision.
"Because the state's amended motion raises arguments previously made, and arguments that the state elected not to raise earlier, the court does not find the amended motion well taken," the judge wrote, adding that the request was also untimely.
A spokesperson for Baldwin's lawyers said Friday that they had no immediate reaction to teh decision.
The case was thrown out halfway through trial on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense in the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
Baldwin's trial was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers say investigators "buried" the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey can now decide whether to appeal to a higher court.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for "Rust," was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer —... Read More