Variety
Spitfire lights Billy Joel do***entary
Film based on singer's Shea Stadium perfs
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Spitfire Pictures and Billy Joel=92s Maritime Pictures are planning a
feature doc based on Joel=92s Shea Stadium concert performances this
week.
Greg Whiteley and Jon Small are directing.
"Last Play at Shea" will weave docu footage with songs from the two
concerts that Joel is giving tonight and Friday, the last before the
historic stadium is torn down later this year.
"Last Play at Shea" will be financed by Joel=92s Maritime, and Joel will
produce with longtime associate Steve Cohen and Spitfire=92s Nigel
Sinclair. The film will be readied for 2009, and Spitfire will sell
distribution territories.
Sinclair said the idea for the Shea concert docu came from Joel, who
isn=92t a big fan of concert films but saw the op****tunity for a docu to
track the intersecting paths of a blue-collar Long Island musician and
the Queens ballpark that hosted its first concert in 1965 when the
Beatles came to town.
"We wanted to approach this like a Ken Burns do***entary, looking at
Billy and Shea Stadium=92s place in the pantheon of New York," Cohen
said.
Joel said: "This is something I=92ve been avoiding my whole life, and I
suppose I can=92t put if off any longer."
About a dozen music stars will take the stage with Joel during the two
shows. Organizers wouldn=92t name them, but they will be in the film.
Whiteley directed "New York Doll," a Sundance Festival docu about
former Dolls bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane. Small has shot videos and
concert films for artists who include Van Morrison, and he filmed
Joel=92s 1990 performance at Yankee Stadium.
Sinclair=92s Spitfire docus include "Amazing Journey: The Story of the
Who," and the Martin Scorsese-directed, Grammy-winning docu "No
Direction Home: Bob Dylan"; a Scorsese-helmed doc on Beatles guitarist
George Harrison is also in the works.
Spitfire is part of HS Media, which is financed by Dutch investment
group Cyrte Investments. HS Media recently combined Spitfire and
Hammer Studios. Among Spitfire=92s dramatic features in the works is a
biopic of Who drummer Keith Moon that will star Mike Myers.
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