Tag Archives: Ewan McGregor

NATURE explores “sea dragons”, Vikings and “living volcanoes”

Attenborough and the Sea Dragon
A remarkable chance discovery is about to reveal secrets that have laid hidden for 200 million years.  A “dragon” that ruled the ocean at the time of the dinosaurs was found in the eroding cliffs on the southeast coast of England called the Jurassic Coast. It’s an Ichthyosaur, a fish lizard. This fearsome predator had the very best characteristics of reptiles and mammals in one formidable package. It could regulate its own body temperature, had astonishingly acute eyesight, and an impressive set of blade-like teeth and powerful, gripping jaws to hunt and swallow its prey whole. As the forensic investigation unfolds, fossil hunter Chris Moore and his team stumble into the 200-million-year-old murder mystery of this extraordinary creature’s fate.

Sir David Attenborough hosts this detective story, from the challenging on-site extraction of the fossils to the 3D reconstruction of the creature. He looks at evidence from animals across the world to try and piece together how this super predator lived and died.


Wild Way of the Vikings
Narrated by Ewan McGregor, viewers experience the natural world through the eyes of the Vikings, when nature meets history in a journey showcasing the wildlife of the North Atlantic. Combining blue-chip natural history filmmaking and dramatic recreations, NATURE travels from Norway to Newfoundland, just as the seafaring warriors did in 1,000 A.D., to get a glimpse of the Vikings’ world in the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus.

Audiences will witness the deep history and cultural respect the Vikings had for the land and sea, from the puffins and otters of the Scottish coast to the vast herds of reindeer in Norway to the eider duck farms of Iceland. Viewers discover how the Vikings practiced the true spirit of the Wild Way of the Vikings: take everything that you need from nature, but value it for as long as you can.


Living Volcanoes
Our planet is bursting at the seams. Around the world, up to 30 volcanoes erupt every day–and hundreds more could explode at any moment. Meet the people and wildlife that live alongside these volcanoes, from Kilauea to Mount Etna. Discover how volcanoes cause destruction but also create and nurture life. At the “burning heart” of this documentary is a daring expedition of scientists and adventurers to one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, located in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

Viewers will take a terrifying descent into the Marum Crater with biologist Jeffrey Marlow, who risks a boiling lava lake to collect and analyze rock samples for signs of life. His discoveries could lead to a better understanding of the origins of life and a picture of what life might look like outside of Earth.

 

  • Street Date: April 30, 2019
  • Run Time: 53 minutes on 1 disc
  • SRP: DVD, $24.99
  • Format: DVD, Digital
  • Genre: Science & Nature: Earth

Universal Music Enterprises releases a double-vinyl LP “Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film”

Excited about the news from Universal Music Enterprises? Oui! Oui!

For the first time, the company has released a double-vinyl LP edition of Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film, the 2001 soundtrack which accompanied the release of his acclaimed motion picture. In addition to its standard black-vinyl release, the anniversary LP will also be released in a limited colored-vinyl edition that will be available exclusively through the online retailer, uDiscover.

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The film, a modern classic, is widely regarded as a reinvention of the film musical. Before the popularization of the mash-up, the “Elephant Love Medley” brought together a distillation of the twentieth century’s great songs into an argument-in-song between the Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. “Lady Marmalade” created a one-time-only super group. The album purposefully brought together an eclectic cross-section of artists and music creators to make a definitive musical statement at the dawn of the new millennium.  Where else can one hear the likes of Bono, Rufus Wainwright, Beck, David Bowie, Jose Feliciano, and Fatboy Slim all joining in a unified musical gesture?

“We wanted to celebrate the great songs of the twentieth century as a lens through which to view the world of the turn-of-the-century Paris Belle Epoque, while remaining visceral and relevant to the audience watching the film in 2001,” coos Baz Luhrmann.

The album is best known for its first single, “Lady Marmalade,” re-recorded by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and Pink, produced by Missy Elliott and writing partner Rockwilder, with the lyrics transposing the original location from New Orleans to the title Paris nightclub.  “Lady Marmalade” reached #1 in its eighth week on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, spending five weeks at the top of the chart, the third airplay-only song in Billboard chart history to hit #1 without being released as a commercially available single. The soundtrack album debuted at #5, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200, while topping the charts in Australia and New Zealand. It eventually reached #1 on the Top Soundtracks chart and was certified in April, 2002, double-platinum.

The song earned a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and MTV Video Music Awards for Best Video of the Year and Best Video from a Film, along with nominations for Best Dance Video, Best Pop Video, Best Choreography and Best Art Direction. The album was Grammy-nominated in the category of Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Luhrmann (along with music supervisor Anton Monsted, under the music production pseudonym BLAM), is a co-producer on cast recordings on the album. Luhrmann, along with music director Marius DeVries, oversaw all of the cast recordings for the film during pre-production.

The album includes Beck’s “Diamond Dogs” and Bono, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer’s take on T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution,” among the highlights. Other tracks include Ewan McGregor and Alessandro Safina’s take on Elton John’s “Your Song,” Nicole Kidman and McGregor’s love song, “Come What May,” originally composed by David Baerwald and Kevin Gilbert for Luhrmann’s previous film, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, but first heard here.

Harper Design and MinaLima team for a most glorious “The Beauty and the Beast”

Tale as old as time/True as it can be/Barely even friends/Then somebody bends/Unexpectedly . . . 

Harper Design never does anything unexpectedly, but the publisher has bent itself in a most lavish way. They have just released The Beauty and the Beast ($29.99), the third book in a series of illustrated classics, that gets reimagined in a most deluxe gift edition. What a glorious journey . . . the tome features stunning new artwork and nine interactive features from the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise, MinaLima. Timed to coincide with Walt Disney Pictures’ film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, this book engages those interested in seeing the musical starring Emma Watson, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline and Ian McKellen.

To add elements of visual intrigue, MinaLima includes:

· A trifold map of the rich French city where the Merchant (Beauty’s father) and his family reside

· A fold out that reveals the interior of the Beast’s enchanted palace

· A series of windows that open to reveal different entertainments to Beauty while in the Beast’s palace

· A dial of the ring Beauty turns on her finger to return to the Beast’s palace after visiting her family

This collectible edition is filled with stunning illustrations of stories that continue to be cherished by readers of all ages. Forget the flowers, chuck the chocolates. The Beauty and the Beast  is a scrumptious wonder.