Presents
A Blackened Production
Metallica Through The Never
Production Notes
Running Time: Approx. 92 minutes
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Scott Feinstein
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Rachel Depew
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LA Press Contact Annalee Paulo
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LA Press Contact Shannon Washburn
42West
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F: 310-477-8442
Directed By
NIMRÓD ANTAL
Written By
NIMRÓD ANTAL
&
JAMES HETFIELD
&
LARS ULRICH
&
KIRK HAMMETT
&
ROBERT TRUJILLO
Produced By
CHARLOTTE HUGGINS
Executive Producers
JAMES HETFIELD
LARS ULRICH
KIRK HAMMETT
ROBERT TRUJILLO
Executive Producers
CLIFF BURNSTEIN
PETER MENSCH
TONY DICIOCCIO
MARC REITER
Executive Producer
DOUG MERRIFIELD
Co-Producer
ADAM ELLISON
Director of Photography
GYULA PADOS, HSC
Production Designer
HELEN JARVIS
Edited By
JOE HUTSHING, A.C.E.
Visual Effects Supervisor
BOYD HOWARD SHERMIS
Costume Designer
CARLA HETLAND
Concert Show Producer
DAN BRAUN
Concert Stage Designer
MARK FISHER
Concert Lighting Designer
JOHN BRODERICK
Music By
METALLICA
Music Produced and Mixed by
GREG FIDELMAN
Casting By
TRICIA WOOD, CSA & DEBORAH AQUILA, CSA
and
MICHELLE ALLEN, CSA
DANE DEHAAN
JAMES HETFIELD
LARS ULRICH
KIRK HAMMETT
ROBERT TRUJILLO
A BLACKENED PRODUCTION
A PICTUREHOUSE PRESENTATION
Award-winning filmmaker Nimród Antal (Predators, Kontroll) creates a groundbreaking 3-D motion picture event, Metallica Through the Never. The music-driven feature film combines a bold narrative and spectacular live-performance footage of one of the most popular and influential rock bands in history to produce a bracing, raw and visceral cinematic experience. Emerging young star Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines, Kill Your Darlings, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) portrays Trip, a young roadie sent on an urgent mission during Metallica’s roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena audience.
As the band performs many of their most iconic songs for tens of thousands of devoted fans on a never-before-seen stage created exclusively for the film, Trip is dispatched outside the arena to meet a disabled delivery truck and recover a mysterious item being transported to the show. But the seemingly simple assignment turns into a surreal adventure when his car is hit by an out-of-control driver. Trip, dazed and bruised, climbs out of his van only to find himself pitched into the middle of a tense standoff between angry protesters and charging riot police. In the ensuing mayhem, a vicious masked horseman sets his murderous eye on Trip while delivering indiscriminate deathblows to rioters and cops alike. Fleeing through the desolate, post-apocalyptic urban streetscape, Trip has only his wits to protect him as he attempts to deliver the band’s precious cargo and avoid becoming the horseman’s next victim.
Featuring dazzling pyrotechnics, the most elaborate live-performance stage ever built and imagery drawn from the band’s trailblazing iconography, the immersive 360-degree show creates a mind-bending, ear-shattering mirror image of the destruction and chaos of Trip’s journey. Metallica Through the Never’s state-of-the-art 3-D photography, captured using up to 24 cameras simultaneously, engulfs audiences in one of the most innovative and exciting cinematic experiences ever imagined.
Metallica is James Hetfield (vocals, guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (guitar, background vocals) and Robert Trujillo (bass, background vocals). The band has sold over 110 million albums worldwide and was one of the top-ten grossing touring acts of 2012, generating $86.1 million in ticket sales from just 30 shows.
Metallica Through The Never is written and directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth). The film will be released by Picturehouse in North America on September 27, 2013, exclusively in over 300 IMAX® 3-D theaters, and will expand into additional theaters on October 4, 2013. Credits are not final.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
All that is, ever
Ever was, will be, ever
Twisting, turning, through the never
—“Through the Never” by Metallica
For over three decades, Metallica has been a dominant force in rock ‘n’ roll, constantly challenging expectations with singular live performances, groundbreaking albums and iconic visuals. From the Southern California garage where they got their start to the largest stadiums and arenas in the world, never content to be just another heavy metal band, Metallica has continually pushed the envelope to create mind-blowing musical experiences for their legions of loyal fans.
With nine bestselling studio albums, including “Metallica” (aka, “The Black Album”), the top-selling North American album of the last 22 years, multiple gold and platinum certifications in over forty countries, dozens of awards, a touring schedule that is one of the most grueling and successful in the music business and even an acclaimed documentary chronicling their successful effort to resolve internal strife, where was this pioneering band to go next?
“After 30 years in the business, the most important thing for us is always making sure that our work remains as varied as possible,” says Lars Ulrich, Metallica’s drummer and, with lead singer and guitarist James Hetfield, co-founder of the band. “We never want to rely on the same things. We had been interested in the idea of another movie for a while, but we felt we had already explored the documentary format in Some Kind of Monster. We wanted something that felt fresh and different.”
In search of a vehicle that would showcase Metallica’s unique talents and ambitions, their longtime managers at Q Prime, music industry powerhouses Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein, along with Q Prime’s Tony DiCioccio and Marc Reiter, proposed an unprecedented expansion into a new sphere with a movie unlike any the world had seen before.
To meet Metallica’s exacting expectations, the show had to be bigger than anything they had ever done before—preferably bigger than anything anyone had ever done before. So an all-new performance was created especially for the film, featuring some of the most elaborate and original stage elements the band had incorporated into its shows over the years. “We worked backwards,” Hetfield says. “Usually you tour a show, get good at it and film it at the end. We thought, why don’t we do it the other way around? We would have a controlled environment to film it in the best way possible. We’d never seen that done before.”
“It’s not one of those situations where we brought in 10 cameras to film the last five shows of a tour,” adds Ulrich. “There was no tour. It was developed first and foremost with the film in mind. We tried to put together the best, most dynamic set list we could, balancing between songs people would know, fan favorites and deeper album tracks.”
Recent advances in 3-D filmmaking inspired the team to re-envision the movie as a fully immersive, one-of-a kind experience. “The 3-D element is not so much about old school gimmicks like guitar necks coming out into the audience or flying drumsticks,” says Ulrich. “It’s more about giving what happens on stage a sense of depth. This film is shot in large part from the band’s point of view. The audience is onstage rather than looking at the stage. 3-D brings more realism to the experience.”
To oversee the filming, Metallica brought in producer Charlotte Huggins, a long-time specialist in creating 3-D extravaganzas for the movie industry. Since serving as special effects producer for the 1993 short, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, Huggins has worked exclusively in 3-D, most recently as producer of the feature films Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
“When Charlotte came along we didn’t have a director or a crew,” says Reiter. “We just had an idea and a band. We thought we had a budget, but it was very incomplete. She brought us together and told us what we needed to do. She connected us with James Cameron and Vince Pace, who hooked us up with the very best camera equipment and technology. It’s not an exaggeration to say we wouldn’t have a movie if she hadn’t come on board.”
At the outset, Huggins knew very little about Metallica. “I knew the name, of course, but not the music,” she says. “I wasn’t familiar with their fan base or how the organization worked. I called my husband and asked him if he knew anything about them. He is very precise and not prone to exaggeration. He said, they are America’s greatest band. In 25 years of marriage, I’d never heard him speak that way.”
Now, Huggins too counts herself a huge fan. “After going to many performances, I am a convert,” she says. “I’m the mother of two teenagers and I have become the coolest mom in town. I hang out with rock stars, who are also really amazing guys. It’s been a real journey for me.”
The producer recognized the groundbreaking nature of Metallica Through the Never. “I was interested in this because it is a unique narrative format,” Huggins explains. “Trip, played by Dane DeHaan, is a runner for the band who goes out into the city. The events that happen in the arena affect events in the city, which affects the performance. Also, Metallica created a stage show expressly for purposes of filming and I believe it may be the first time that’s ever happened in a feature-length movie.”
Master of puppets, pulling your strings
Twisting your mind, smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
Just call my name, I'll hear you scream
—“Master of Puppets” by Metallica
As their concept continued to evolve, Metallica launched a search for a filmmaker who could handle both the technical and creative demands of the project. “We knew we needed a real partner,” says Ulrich. “There wasn’t even a script at the time. Most of the people I spoke to looked at me like I was from another planet when I explained what we wanted to do. “
The name at the top of Huggins’ list of potential writer-directors was Nimród Antal, who was honored at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for his debut feature film Kontroll. “We could not just make a good movie,” says Huggins. “Our job was to make an incredible movie. Nimród has that Metallica thing about him—it’s not enough to do a great job. He always goes one step beyond.”
Antal was invited to meet with the team and share his ideas for an original story that would showcase the band in an innovative new way. “Nimród had this mad, crazy look in his eyes and he instantly got it,” Ulrich remembers. “The way he talked about Metallica’s role in his life when he grew up in Hungary, we knew he was crazy enough to go on this adventure with us. Nimród invented this metropolis and the whole nightmarish journey that plays out in it.”
Antal served as Metallica’s guide through another brave new world—the movie business. “We’ve got carte blanche in the music world and we rarely hear the word ‘no’ when we want to try some new adventure,” says Hetfield. “We took that attitude into the movie world where it was greeted with some enthusiasm, but also a few reality checks. Nimród never said no, but he had to deal with management on one hand, which is about money mainly, and the band on the other, which is all about the creative process and didn’t care much about money. He had to provide the balance.”
The band members, management team and director participated in hours of meetings to discuss ideas and fine-tune the storyline. “It was mostly a matter of trying to figure out the right balance between performance and narrative, as well as where it should be filmed and the more practical stuff,” says Ulrich. “With Nimród and Charlotte in place, the band could concentrate on the part we know best—what was going to happen onstage.”
Antal presented the band with an extensive storyboard version of the narrative, as well as a look book of unique elements. “His initial idea for the story was the thing that grabbed us,” says Hetfield. “When you hire an artist, it’s because you like what he’s done, not what you’re going to tell him to do.”
The director says he appreciated the respect the band showed for his vision. “At one point, James said, ‘we’re all going to be throwing out ideas, but you have to take the ones you think are the best.’ They understood that for a filmmaker to embrace the project, he or she has to own it. People often make a mistake of micromanaging, but they were able to let the reins go a little bit. It is first and foremost a Metallica film, but it’s also a film I consider very much my own.”
After growing up listening to Metallica’s music, Antal says working with them has only increased his admiration for the band. “A friend turned me on to them at the end of junior high school, so I was a pure fan before I was ever hired,” he says. “You can’t say they’re just a metal band. They transcend genre and the proof is in their longevity. I had the pleasure of seeing them sell out 22,000 seats every night for eight straight nights in Mexico City. It was a religious experience!