“Shooting a scene with Malcolm McDowell and Bernadette Peters, the violinist Joshua Bell admitted to feeling a bit star-struck,” writes Corinne Ramey in Friday’s (12/6) Wall Street Journal. “The brief scene, in which Mr. Bell plays himself and Mr. McDowell plays an established but aging conductor, is part of ‘Mozart in the Jungle,’ a new pilot produced by Amazon Studios, Amazon’s recent foray into web video.… The roughly 30-minute pilot wrapped up filming in Manhattan and Purchase, N.Y., in November, and will be released online in early 2014. On Thursday, Amazon announced its cast, which, in addition to Mr. McDowell and Ms. Peters, includes Gael García Bernal, Lola Kirke, Saffron Burrows and Peter Vack. The script, written by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers, is inspired by the 2005 memoir ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ by Blair Tindall, an oboist who spent several decades playing in New York’s freelance classical scene. (The book’s subtitle is ‘Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music.’) … Various local musicians are also involved, including the actors’ coaches and members of the Chelsea Symphony and the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra.… In Mr. Bell’s scene in ‘Mozart in the Jungle,’ he plays the end of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto and bows while bantering with Mr. McDowell.”
Posted December 9, 2013
