On Sunday, August 25th at 9pm the 30th Anniversary MTV Video Music Awards Show will pay tribute to the Beastie Boys classic song and video No Sleep Till Brooklyn.
The enduring memory of the song and video also allows us to pay our respects to the passing of both Beastie Boy Adam Yauch(MCA) and video director Ric Menello.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/about.jhtml
The Immigrant will be shown during this year’s prestigious New York Film Festival, running from September 27th through October 13th, as part of the main slate then hopefully released through Radius/Weinstein Company sometime later in the year.
In Director James Gray’s richly detailed period tragedy, set in a dusty, sepia-toned 1920s Manhattan, a young Polish immigrant (Marion Cotillard) is caught in a dangerous battle of wills with a shady burlesque manager (Joaquin Phoenix). Screenplay by Ric Menello and James Gray. A Radius release.
http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced
The Immigrant, one of Ric’s last screenplay credits, screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this past May.
James Gray co-wrote, produced and directed the film, which stars Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner.
It is scheduled for release later this year through the Weinstein Company.
Just about everyone who lives in the Flatbush neighborhood of Ditmas Park, knew Ric Menello. Even those who didn’t know his name probably still would recognize him, because Ric Menello was intricately woven into the fabric of this neighborhood. Much of Ric’s time was spent in the area on and around Cortelyou Road, but he could also often be found having lunch or sitting on a bench in newly renovated Newkirk Plaza. This was, in fact, the place he was on February 28, 2013 when he had the heart attack that would end up taking his life one day later. It’s fitting then that the mosaic designed by J. Carlos Pinto and worked on by other local artists, most of whom knew Ric, would be dedicated to him and that his likeness would be the last image immortalized in the piece.
The mosaic, one of many street art projects produced by Mr. Pinto through the Brooklyn Recycle Project, http://brooklynrecycleproject.tumblr.com/, in various locations in New York City, was several months in the making. Its completion was celebrated and dedicated to Ric on May 11, 2013.