| “BEE MOVIE” - DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
ATTRAE UNO “SCIAME” DI TALENTI
 La DreamWorks Animation ha messo assieme un'eccitante cast di talenti del doppiaggio per la commedia animata al computer di prossima uscita - “Bee Movie”. Jerry Seinfeld ha partecipato alla stesura, oltre a produrre e a recitare nel film assieme alla vincitrice dell'Academy Award ® Renée Zellweger (“Cold Mountain”, “Chicago”).
“Bee Movie” è la fiaba comica di Barry B. Benson, un giovane laureato fresco di college, disilluso dalla prospettiva di avere un unica possibilità di carriera - fare miele.
Durante un'occasione di uscita dall'alveare, la vita di Barry viene salvata da una donna, Vanessa, una fioraia di New York. Mentre la loro relazione sboccia, gli occhi di Barry si aprono sul mondo degli umani e presto scopre che anche loro fanno uso massiccio di miele. Armato di queste informazioni, Barry capisce qual è la sua missione nella vita e decide di far causa alla razza umana per furto di miele di api. Il risultato è che gli uomini e le api inizieranno ad comportarsi gli uni con le altre in maniera mai vista prima, con ognuna delle parti che accusa l'altra. Barry si trova in mezzo e con un problema molto insolito da risolvere.
“Bee Movie” è diretto da Steve Hickner (“The Prince of Egypt”), e Simon J. Smith (“Shrek 4-D”), al debutto alla regia di un lungometraggio. JERRY SEINFELD “RONZA” A CANNES.
Se ne sono viste di belle al Festival di Cannes nel corso degli anni ma poche così straordinarie come vedere Jerry Seinfeld, vestito da ape, lanciarsi dalla cima del famosissimo Hotel Carlton e finire in tuffo sulla spiaggia sottostante.
La spettacolare acrobazia ha attirato ieri (martedi 17 maggio) un' enorme folla sul rinomato lungomare, per vedere il famoso comico imbragatoattaccato ad un cavo lanciarsi dalla terrazza del tetto alta 40 metri per finire sul molo della spiaggia del Carlton.
“E' stato un fantastico ronzio, scusate il gioco di parole”, ha dichiarato Jerry dopo aver completato con successo una delle cose più “assurde” che abbia mai fatto. “Sapete, è stato davvero uno spasso. Mi sono davvero divertito.”
Seinfeld ha accettato la sfida per promuovere il suo prossimo film animato, Bee Movie, che ha scritto, prodotto e dove recita dando voce al protagonista, un'ape chiamata Barry B. Benson.
Seinfeld ha eseguito l'acrobazia 3 volte in tutto – è andato giù, e poi è stato ritirato su prima di volare giù ancora.
“ They didn't tell me we were going on the last one . I just fell off and thought, ‘This is it! ‘”
Bee movie co star, Chris Rock gave a running commentary for a crowd of several hundred onlookers and camera crews from all over the world.
Rock joked, “ Ladies and Gentlemen, you just witnessed pure stupidity by a person we used to call a genius,”
The idea for Seinfeld to buzz Cannes came from DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.
“When this idea came up I said ‘you're mad!'” recalled Seinfeld. “The plan was that I would be launched from the top of an eight storey hotel building in a completely absurd costume in order to sell a completely absurd movie.
“It seemed desperate. I said ‘how desperate are we?' And then I started to understand the context of this film festival and the kind of things people do to get attention for their products and I realised ‘well, I guess that's why they call it show business. So I did it.”
Katzenberg was at his star's side – also dressed as a giant bumble bee in a striking orange and black costume – when Seinfeld did a top-secret trial run from the hotel roof in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“Yes, Jeffrey was there with me when we got up at three o clock in the morning, in the dead of night, pitch black, and tested it out. We wanted to make sure that everything worked OK. And it did so we were ready for the main event.”
“ It was different from the rehearsal because, then, we couldn't see anything. But today , in the sunlight, I could see how high up we were. And I thought to myself,' This is quite a stunt!' The worst bit is before you go off the roof. But one you are flying it's fine. “
Seinfeld felt “complete confidence” in the technical team controlling the apparatus and his safety. They erected 126 metres of steel cabling from the Carlton roof, stretching across seafront boulevard, La Croisette to the end of the pier.
“I'm clipped to a harness on a cable like an acrobat. It's a little bit scary. It's actually an English company that did the rigging and I had complete confidence in them and I think we all knew what was at stake so I wasn't worried.
“They can control the speed so it takes about 20 seconds from top to bottom. But it was 20 seconds hanging from a wire eight stories up wearing an absurd costume. And time is relative!”
The comedian has scaled some dizzy heights in his remarkable career. His self titled much loved television series ran for nine extraordinarily successful years and the last episode, which aired in 1998, drew an audience of 78 million in the US.
But dressing up as a bee and flying through the air in the South of France is, as he points out, a bizarre first – and a new high – for him.
“I've never done anything like this before. I went skydiving once but that was many years ago, I was a kid, like 18 or something and that was scary. But this really wasn't too bad unless you have a fear of heights and then I wouldn't recommend it. “
Bee Movie has been a four-year labour of love for Seinfeld. He first came up with the idea over a dinner with legendary director and DreamWorks co founder Steven Spielberg.
“I was trying to fill a lull in the conversation and it was just this idea ‘bees… B movies…' that was all I had,” he recalls. “I had no character, no story, nothing. And he said ‘we're doing it! We've got to do it!''
“He called Jeffrey (Katzenberg) and put me on a plane and they had me over at DreamWorks and showed me the technology. And once they showed me the technology then I got really interested. And then it was the writing process which is always the same.
`'But you know, I did a television series for nine years and 180 episodes – that's 90 hours of production and that's roughly 53 feature length movies in nine years. So I was kind of tired working with live actors and the idea of just doing a movie was like ‘nah, I've done enough of that kind of thing.'
“But with this idea your imagination can go a little further and that's how they roped me into it. It's been four years since I started with a blank sheet of paper with just ‘Bee Movie' written on it, nothing else. And then it was a case of sitting in a room with a couple of comedy writers until the movie comes out.”
Seinfeld recruited a remarkable cast of voice talent – Chris Rock, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Ray Liotta, Sting, Kathy Bates and many more – to enhance the animators vision and bring the characters to life.
“I was on the phone with Chris and I said ‘would you like to do a part in the movie just for fun?' And that's the other thing about animation it's so easy to be in it and that's why you can get all these huge stars because there's no make up, no wardrobe. It's like ‘come in if you want, if not we'll come to you.' So that's a great advantage.”
Bee Movie is Seinfeld's first major project since his TV series and it's been a blast, he says. And jumping off the roof of the Carlton Hotel during his first ever visit to the Cannes Film Festival was an “amazing experience.”
“You might say that it was a buzz,” he laughs. “I've got to get used to using that word. I know I'm going to be hearing it a lot!”
ends
|