Hollywood will come alive with The Sound of Music (1965) this spring as the beloved, Oscar®-winning classic returns to the big screen to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala opening-night screening on Thursday, March 26 at the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival. Legendary stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer will join Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theater IMAX to introduce the beautifully restored film and kick off the sixth annual festival, which will run March 26-29, 2015, in Hollywood. The film is being presented in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox, in celebration of their Golden 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release arriving on March 10, 2015. TCM has also announced that Delta Air Lines is returning once again as the festival’s exclusive Founding Partner. The official airline partner of the TCM Classic Film Festival, Delta has provided air travel for many of the festival’s VIP guests every year since the festival began.
The Sound of Music is the story of the Von Trapp family, whose lives are forever changed by the arrival of Maria, the warmhearted young governess who brings joy and music to the Captain (Plummer) and his children. The film earned Andrews her second consecutive Oscar nomination after having won the previous year for her performance in Mary Poppins (1964). Additional information about The Sound of Music and its leading lady is included below.
The TCM Classic Film Festival’s screening of The Sound of Music will mark the second year in a row that a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical has opened the week’s festivities. Last year, the duo’s groundbreaking Oklahoma! (1955) launched the 2014 TCM Classic Film Festival, with Shirley Jones attending.
The Sound of Music joins a growing list of restored classics being showcased at the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival. TCM previously announced that the festival will feature restored versions of Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995), William Dieterle’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928). The Keaton comedy will also be accompanied by legendary silent film composer Carl Davis conducting the world premiere performance of his new score for the film.
Passes for the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival are on sale now and can be purchased exclusively through the official festival website: www.tcm.com/festival. Additional screenings and events will be announced over the coming months.
Opening Night Gala – The Sound of Music (1965)
The Sound of Music (1965) – 50th anniversary celebration presented in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox – Featuring a live appearance by Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer
Robert Wise’s sumptuous, Oscar®-winning adaptation of Rogers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is one of the most beloved musicals of all time and one of the genre’s biggest box office hits. It is the story of Maria, a spirited young woman who leaves a convent and becomes a governess to seven unruly children. Her charm and songs soon win the hearts of the children and their father but when Nazi Germany unites with Austria, Maria is forced to attempt a daring escape with her new family.
Also starring with Andrews and Plummer in The Sound of Music are Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn and Peggy Wood, along with Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner and Kym Karath as the von Trapp children.
The Sound of Music is packed with musical delights, from the stunning and iconic mountaintop opening title song to the infectious joy as Maria and the children sing “Do-Re-Mi” while canvassing the spectacular Austrian countryside. Other unforgettable songs in the film include “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” to name a few.
The Sound of Music topped the box office in 1965 and continues to rank as one of the most popular films of all time. The film earned 10 Oscar nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Score.
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews has been a beloved and much-honored star of stage, screen and television for more than half a century. She was already a Broadway legend when she made her feature film debut in 1964’s Mary Poppins. Andrews’ iconic performance in the title role of the magical nanny brought her an Academy Award® a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award. The following year, she earned a second Oscar® nomination and won another Golden Globe Award for her unforgettable portrayal of Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. She received her third Academy Award nomination and won another Golden Globe Award for her “dual” role in Victor/Victoria (1982).
Today’s young film audiences may be more familiar with Andrews as a queen trying to train her teenaged granddaughter to be a princess in the hit films The Princess Diaries (2001), and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement (2004). Andrews also voiced the character of Queen Lillian in the blockbuster hits Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007). More recently, she voiced the narration of the hugely successful Disney release of Enchanted (2007). In 2010, Andrews added to her multi-generational appeal with the releases of The Tooth Fairy, Shrek Forever After and Despicable Me. Her earlier motion picture credits include The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), Darling Lili (1970) and 10 (1979), to name only a few.
Andrews was born and raised in England, where she first came to fame as a young musical performer on stage and on radio. She was still in her teens when she made her way across the Atlantic and to Broadway, in her 1953 debut in the musical The Boy Friend. She went on to create the role of Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway musical My Fair Lady, which became an instant classic and the longest-running musical of its day. Andrews also won a New York Drama Critics Award and garnered a Tony Award nomination for her performance. She received another Tony Award nomination in 1961 when she originated the role of Queen Guinevere in the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot. Thirty-five years later, Andrews returned to Broadway to star in the 1995 stage adaptation of Victor/Victoria. Her career came full circle in 2005 when she directed a revival of The Boy Friend, which toured throughout North America.
Andrews has also been honored for her work on television, beginning in 1957 with her Emmy-nominated performance in the title role of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Cinderella. She later won an Emmy Award for her own musical variety series, The Julie Andrews Hour (1972-73), and also earned Emmy nominations for Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center (1971) (with her “chum” Carol Burnett) and her performance in the special Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas (1987). Andrews’ more recent television movies includes One Special Night (1999) with her friend James Garner, Eloise at the Plaza (2003), Eloise at Christmastime (2003) and, re-uniting with Christopher Plummer, the CBS live production of On Golden Pond (2001).
Andrews, already an accomplished bestselling author (Mandy – 1971, The Last of The Really Great Whangdoodles – 1974), has joined talents with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, to pursue the publishing of books committed to stimulating a sense of wonder in children and young readers. The Julie Andrews Collection was launched in October 2003 and has released over 25 books to date, (many of them bestsellers) including the Little Bo series, the Dumpy The Dump Truck franchise, The Great American Mousical, Thanks to You and Simeon’s Gift (the musical/stage adaptation of which toured parts of the U.S. in 2008, including two performances at the Hollywood Bowl, and in London in 2010), and The Julie Andrews Collection of Poems, Songs & Lullabies. Home—A Memoir of My Early Years Andrews’ autobiography, was released in April 2008 to rave reviews and immediately climbed to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list as well as several other prestigious lists in the U.S. and abroad. Andrews and Emma are enjoying great receptivity to their new franchise of books called The Very Fairy Princess. The initial release ascended rapidly to #1 after its May 2010 release on the New York Times Bestseller list and enjoyed Top 10 status for over 10 weeks. It was followed in May 2011 with The Very Fairy Princess Takes the Stage (which reached #1 status as well), and then in April 2012, The Very Fairy Princess—Here Comes the Flower Girl (which enjoyed top 10 status for several weeks).
In October 2013, The Very Fairy Princess Sparkles in the Snow was released and has shown its “sparkle” as a perennial by being re-released in November 2014 for the holiday season. Valentine’s Day 2013 was greeted by The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart and the latest picture book was The Very Fairy Princess Graduation Day which was released in April 2014. Interwoven in these releases were several activity books and doodle books and “earlier reader” books that have rounded out the franchise.
Inspired by the success of The Very Fairy Princess franchise, Andrews, in partnership with the The Walt Disney Company and Target, created National Princess Week in 2012 to celebrate the inner sparkle and individuality of children everywhere.
In October 2012, Andrews adapted and directed her best-selling children’s book The Great American Mousical as a musical for the stage. The project opened at the Norma Terris Theatre at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut and received a spectacular reception. Several other projects authored by Andrews are currently being developed for film and TV entertainment. Although she continues to receive offers for films and TV as an actress, she is immensely enjoying her work “behind the cameras.”
In addition to her stage and screen work, Andrews has dedicated her life to her family and to serving important causes, including Operation USA, an international relief organization with which Andrews has traveled to such places as Vietnam and Cambodia. From 1992 to 2006 she was honored as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which provides financial and technical support for low-income women in developing countries.
Andrews received her honors as a Dame of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on New Year’s Eve 1999. She was also a 2001 Kennedy Center Honoree. For more about Andrews and her activities and book collection, please go to www.julieandrewscollection.com.
Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer has enjoyed almost 60 years as one of the theatre’s most respected actors and as a veteran of over 100 motion pictures. Raised in Montreal, he began his professional career on stage and radio in both French and English. After Eva Le Gallienne gave him his New York debut (1954) he went on to star in many celebrated productions on Broadway and London’s West End winning accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. He has won two Tony Awards for the musical Cyrano and for Barrymore plus seven Tony nominations, his latest for his King Lear (2004) and for his Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind (2007); also three Drama Desk Awards and the National Arts Club Medal. A former leading member of the Royal National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier and the Royal Shakespeare Company under Sir Peter Hall, where he won London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in Becket; he has also led Canada’s Stratford Festival in its formative years under Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Langham.
Since Sidney Lumet introduced him to the screen in Stage Struck (1958), his range of notable films include The Man Who Would Be King, Battle of Britain, Waterloo, Fall of The Roman Empire, Star Trek VI, Twelve Monkeys and the 1965 Oscar-winning The Sound of Music. More recent films include The Insider (as Mike Wallace; the National Film Critics Award), the acclaimed A Beautiful Mind, Man in the Chair, Must Love Dogs, National Treasure, Syriana and Inside Man. His TV appearances, which number close to 100, include the Emmy-winning BBC Hamlet at Elsinore playing the title role; the Emmy-winning productions The Thornbirds, Nuremberg, Little Moon of Alban and HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight earning him seven Emmy nominations and taking home two Emmys.
Apart from honors in the UK, USA, Austria and Canada, he was the first performer to receive the Jason Robards Award in memory of his great friend, the Edwin Booth Award and the Sir John Gielgud Quill Award. In 1968, sanctioned by Elizabeth II, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada (an honorary knighthood). An Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at Juilliard, he also received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. In 1986 he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and in 2000 Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Plummer’s more recent projects include the highly praised animated films Up, 9 and My Dog Tulip, as well as the title role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam. He played the great novelist Tolstoy opposite Helen Mirren in The Last Station for Sony Classics where he received his first Academy Award nomination in 2010. He followed that up the next year with another nomination and a win for Best Supporting Actor in Beginners from writer/director Mike Mills and appeared in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that same year. In July and August 2012, he returned to the Stratford Festival to perform his one-man show that he created entitled A Word or Two, directed by Des McAnuff. In 2014, he starred opposite Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine in Elsa & Fred directed by Michael Radford, Hector And The Search for Happiness directed by Peter Chelsom. In 2105, he will star in Danny Collins opposite Al Pacino and Annette Bening for writer/director Dan Fogelman and The Forger opposite John Travolta directed by Phillip Martin.
His recent self-written best selling memoir, In Spite of Myself (Afred A. Knopf Publishers) is being much lauded by critics and public alike.
About the 50th Anniversary Home Entertainment Release of The Sound of Music
Twentieth Century Fox proudly honors the 50th Anniversary with an unprecedented year-long company-wide celebration highlighted by theatrical and home entertainment releases, and a slate of cross-company and promotional partnerships that will bring one of the world’s most ‘favorite things,’ to millions around the globe. The unparalleled golden anniversary of the film’s premiere will launch March 2 in the UK and March 10 in the US, with the release of the 5-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition 50th Anniversary Blu-ray™/DVD/Digital HD. Beautifully restored, the 5-disc 50th Anniversary Blu-ray™ features over 13 hours of bonus content highlighted by the all-new documentary “The Sound of a City: Julie Andrews Returns to Salzburg.” The treasured film will also once again proudly shine on the big screen in commemoration of this special anniversary through a Fox partnership with Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies. A beautifully restored version of the film will be shown for two days only, April 19th and 22nd, in over 500 theatres across the US.
About the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival
For the sixth consecutive year, thousands of movie lovers from around the globe will descend upon Hollywood for the TCM Classic Film Festival. The 2015 festival is set to take place Thursday, March 26 – Sunday, March 29, 2015. Over four packed days and nights, attendees will be treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
The theme for the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival will be History According to Hollywood:
The Old West. Medieval England. Ancient Rome. Hollywood has found endless inspiration in re-creating historical moments and bringing to life the heroes and villains of the past, creating a form of time travel for audiences through the ages and around the world. These films, however, are not always true to the historical record. Filmmakers have often created works about the past that are a reflection of the period in which they were made, or change facts to suit a particular storyline. The 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival will explore how cinema has shaped how we view – and remember – history.
TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne will once again serve as official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival, with TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz introducing various events. The festival’s official hotel and central gathering point for the sixth consecutive year will be The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which has a longstanding role in movie history and was the site of the first Academy Awards® ceremony. The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel will also offer special rates for festival attendees. Screenings and events during the festival will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres and the Egyptian Theatre, as well as other Hollywood venues.
Festival Passes
Passes for the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival are on sale now and can be purchased exclusively through the official festival website: www.tcm.com/festival. The number of passes available, especially top-level “Spotlight” passes, is limited.
The “Spotlight” Festival Pass: $1,649 – Includes all privileges available to “Classic” and “Essential” passholders, priority entry to all screening events; plus entry to the exclusive Opening Night Gala Party following the Red Carpet Gala screening at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX; meet-and-greet events with TCM friends, including Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz; and a limited edition TCM Classic Film Festival poster.
The “Essential” Festival Pass: $749 – Includes all privileges available to “Classic” passholders, plus entry to the Red Carpet Gala screening at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX and official TCM Classic Film Festival collectibles.
The “Classic” Festival Pass: $599 – Includes access to all film programs at festival venues Thursday, March 26 – Sunday, March 29 (does not include admittance to the Opening Night Red Carpet Gala screening at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX or the Opening Night Gala Party); access to all Club TCM events, panels and poolside screenings at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; an Opening Night welcome reception at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; and the Closing Night event.
The “Palace” Festival Pass: $299 – Includes access to all screenings and events at the TCL Chinese Theatre (excluding the Opening Night Red Carpet Gala) and the Egyptian Theatre Friday, March 27 – Sunday, March 29, as well as poolside screenings at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
