Zeppelin doc premieres in Venice
VENICE, Italy — Guitarist Jimmy Page says he turned down a lot of “pretty miserable” pitches over the years to make a documentary about Led Zeppelin. But he finally bit when he received a deeplyresearched proposal focusing almost exclusively on the music and chronicling the band’s birth in 1968 and its meteoric early rise.
The result is “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” one of the most eagerly anticipated documentaries at the Venice Film Festival, which made its premiere Saturday with Page on the red carpet.
Producers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty — avowed Zeppelin fans — obtained never-before-seen footage of some of the band’s early U.S. and British concerts as well as an audio interview that drummer John Bonham gave to an Australian journalist before he died in 1980.
The interview, concert footage and other archive material are spliced into contemporary interviews with the three surviving band members — Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones — to create a montage that maps the frenetic first two years of the band’s existence and its early musical influences.
‘Shang-Chi’ expected to top holiday box office:
Marvel and Disney’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is expected to soar to the top of the domestic box office over the holiday weekend with an estimated four-day debut of $75 million to $85 million.
The superhero film took in $29.6 million on Friday from 4,300 theaters. Some industry experts are estimating “Shang-Chi’s” earnings could even reach $86 million over its first four days, with a predicted three-day gross of $70.8 million. This would put “Shang-Chi” slightly below the debut of “Black Widow,” which opened to $80 million over three days and $60 million on Disney Plus Premier Access. However, “Shang-Chi” is expected to break the record for all-time Labor Day weekend earnings.
Lynn concert to benefit victims of storms:
Country music stars are joining forces in Nashville, Tennessee, for a concert benefiting victims of the severe storms and flooding that have overtaken parts of the state.
Country legend Loretta Lynn is rounding up Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Luke Bryan and Luke Combs for a Sept. 13 show at the famed Grand Ole Opry House in support of United Way Humphreys County and other flood relief measures.
Lynn’s “Hometown Rising” event will be broadcast on Circle Network
— a joint venture between Opry Entertainment and Gray Television — and livestreamed on Circle All Access on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, according to a statement.
“I am so honored that
so many of our friends are coming together to show so much love for our neighbors and community after such a devastating loss,” the coal miner’s daughter said in a statement. “You know, we’ve all needed help from time to time, and that’s why when we can give back, we do.”
Torrential rains and floods devastated Humphreys County, west of Nashville, in midAugust. The area was inundated by the deluge, which dropped more than 15 inches of rain on the area in six hours, causing flash flooding that killed nearly a dozen people. Lynn’s family’s longtime ranchhand Wayne Spears was among the victims.
Sept. 6 birthdays: Comedian JoAnne Worley is 84. Singer Roger Waters is 78. Actor Jane Curtin is 74. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 63. Actor Rosie Perez is 57. Singer Macy Gray is 54. Singer CeCe Peniston is 51. Actor Idris Elba is 49. Actor Justina Machado is 49. Actor Anika Noni Rose is 49. Singer Nina Persson is 47. Actor Naomie Harris is 43. Rapper Foxy Brown is 43. Actor Lauren Lapkus is 36. Singer Max George is 33.