Rock Legend Rick Springfield stars in "Ricki and the Flash"

At Ricki’s (Meryl Streep) side, on lead guitar in Columbia Pictures’ new dramedy “Ricki and the Flash,” director Jonathan Demme cast rock legend Rick Springfield. Best known for his 80s-era hits, including “Jessie’s Girl,” Springfield’s career has taken on new dimensions with multifaceted and complex acting roles.

“The part of Greg is definitely dual-purpose,” says Demme. “We needed a terrific actor capable of going toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep, but also an authentic shredder. I was worried about finding a great Greg. The assignment to our great casting directors was to find any actor who can play guitar and might have the capacity to step up. Find anyone in that age range – I’ll see anybody. And then Rick Springfield came in, we meet him, he’s very nice – and then he plugs in and he’s amazing.”

Later, Springfield had a second meeting with Streep – a meeting to ensure that the two actors would have chemistry together. “All of this authentic warmth comes out of him – he got Meryl to open up to stuff that she hadn’t known was there yet. He came in knowing that he would be fantastic in this part – it was an exciting opportunity to play opposite Meryl Streep, to be a band member but also play a very complicated character beyond that,” says Demme. “When he left, we thought, ‘Oh my God, we have just found the greatest Greg of all.’”

“Rick is very alive and in the moment, as a person, a performer and an actor,” says Streep. “That’s a beautiful quality and a necessary one for Greg, because he’s a tender character. He’s the lead guitar in The Flash, but he also aspires to be the man in Ricki’s life. Greg just wants her to jump in with both feet, but Ricki has a lot of problems committing, and she’s really not sure she can make it not be a lie.”

“Greg is a good guitar player who never really made it,” says Springfield. “He had a brush with success that never went anywhere. But he loves to play and has been in love with Ricki for quite a while. He’s frustrated by her noncommittal, casual attitude to their relationship, but he loves playing music with her – that’s where they unite. They share that passion for music.”

Springfield’s greatest challenge in playing the role? “Not constantly going, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Meryl Streep!’” he jokes. Kidding aside, Springfield is used to owning the stage as a rock performer, but the part of Greg required him to defer to Ricki – the leader of The Flash. “I’m a bit of a show-boater,” he admits, “so to play the support role, I modelled it off a friend of mine, who actually has that relationship with his wife on stage. It was very fortuitous that I saw them – I kind of modelled it on that relationship. It’s an emotional thing that you hook into like you do with any acting role – you hook into that person through whatever process, and that guides a lot of how you react and how you work.”

Interestingly enough, Springfield and his character share a love for a very specific instrument. “In the script, Greg had a ‘68 SG. I actually have a ‘69 SG – I bought it new in 1970 and it’s been with me ever since. It was my main guitar on my first albums, and I played it and wrote a lot of my early songs on it, including ‘Jessie’s Girl.’ So it’s a very important guitar to me. I mentioned that to Jonathan, and he said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to use it.’ It was an instant connection for me to that guitar.”

To be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide starting Sept. 9, “Ricki and the Flash” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Johnny Depp reinvents his cinematic look for "Into the Woods"

No one can do it better than Johnny Depp who re-invents his cinematic look for "Into the Woods". Johnny Depp stars as the The Wolf in Walt Disney Pictures' new fantasy adventure.

When director Rob Marshall approached Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd,” “Alice in Wonderland”) about bringing the predatory character of the Wolf to life, the actor was quick to sign on. Having worked with Marshall on “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” Depp shares a similar sensibility with the director, and says, “I’d shoot the phone book with Rob if he asked. He’s the real thing.”

In discussing the character of the Wolf, screenwriter James Lapine says, “The Wolf is the feral creature in the storytelling. He’s the unguarded, animalistic presence embodied, rather amazingly, by Johnny Depp, who we also see as seductive. It’s the seduction of the wild.”

Bringing the fairy tales into a realistic setting, which was one of composer Stephen Sondheim and Lapine’s original goals with “Into the Woods” was one aspect the Depp found very appealing. The actor says, “I loved the idea of taking all these fairy tales that we’ve grown up with and bringing them all to life in one large musical. We get to know more about them which turns out to be even spookier and funnier than imagined, so it’s just a brilliant idea. And it’s so beautifully put together.”
A long-time fan of Sondheim, Depp adds, “Stephen’s work is just magnificent…he’s a living legend.

His compositions and his ability to translate into song what the characters are feeling, is just miraculous. His material is very complicated to read and very complex to sing. If you’re not a trained singer you have to really dig in deep to find those things that help you feel and understand the meaning of each lyric. But there’s something very exciting about challenging yourself to see if you can get to that place.”

As for Marshall’s style of directing, Depp praises, “His approach is very pure, and his vision of the author’s work and the choices that he made were very beautiful and emotional. He has a fine understanding of subtext and a very unique way of approaching it, and he knows that sometimes what is not said is just as important as what is actually said.”
Right after “Into the Woods,” Depp recently wrapped production on “Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass.”

“Into the Woods” is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy)—all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife (James Corden & Emily Blunt), their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch (Meryl Streep) who has put a curse on them.

Opening across the Philippines on January 28, 2015, “Into the Woods” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

“INTO THE WOODS” JOURNEYS INTO THE BIG SCREEN

Twelve years ago, following the phenomenal success of the big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical “Chicago” (which won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture), director Rob Marshall sat down with Stephen Sondheim and expressed an interest in directing a film version of one of the legendary composer’s stage productions. At the top of Sondheim’s list: “Into the Woods,” one of his most acclaimed – and poignant – works, and one which he thought would be a perfect fit for Marshall.

Marshall and his producing partner, John DeLuca, had been fans of Sondheim and James Lapine’s landmark musical since it opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1987. In describing the piece Marshall says, “The story seamlessly intertwines Sondheim’s emotional, funny and brilliant score with Lapine’s intricate and masterful book, which is a modern twist on several beloved fairy tales, and is entertaining, while examining complex themes like the consequences of wishes, the parent/child relationship, greed, ambition, loss, and, perhaps most importantly, unconditional love and the power of the human spirit.”

Then in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Marshall heard President Obama addressing the families of the victims. In an effort to console them, Obama said, “You are not alone...No one is alone.” The phrase “No One is Alone,” which is also one of the most moving and memorable songs from “Into the Woods,” struck a chord with Marshall, and in that moment he knew that the time was finally right to bring the beloved musical to the screen.

“In many ways, I think ‘Into the Woods’ is a fairy tale for the 21st century post 9/11 generation,” Marshall says. “Sondheim and Lapine were way ahead of their time when they wrote it. The comforting knowledge that we are not alone in this unstable world gives us all that glimmer of hope.”

For Sondheim, “’No One Is Alone’” was written as a community song. “I believe Arthur Wing Pinero said that in writing a play, you tell the audience what you’re going to do, you do it and then you tell them that you’ve done it. If you tell them that you’ve done it, then it makes a package,” he says.

“’No One Is Alone’ tells them that we’ve done it,” Sondheim explains. “This is what the show has been about. No one is alone: we are all connected in some way and we are all responsible for each other’s actions. It’s something I believe firmly and it’s something that’s worth writing about.”

Marshall and DeLuca took their passion project to Disney, and immediately knew they had found the perfect company to bring the stage musical to life. “We were thrilled that the company embraced the project the way that they did,” says Marshall. “They were truly interested in expanding the definition of what a ‘modern fairy tale’ film could be.”

Producer Marc Platt, who joined the duo in making the film, says, “Disney is a company that historically tells the classic fairy tales, so moving forward it should also be the company that finds new, contemporary and unexpected ways to tell these stories.”

So after 27 years, the long-awaited classic was set to begin its journey forward. “The Woods of our story is universal, and can mean so many things,” Marshall says. “It is the place you go to find your dreams, confront your fears, lose yourself, find yourself, grow up and learn to move forward. It’s all part of life. So ‘Into the Woods’ we go, again and again...”

“Into the Woods” is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy)—all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife (James Corden & Emily Blunt), their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch (Meryl Streep) who has put a curse on them.
The principal cast is led by Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine and Johnny Depp.

Opening across the Philippines on January 28, 2015, “Into the Woods” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.