FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Toni Atterbury
Unit Publicist
Walt Disney Pictures’ "THE COUNTRY BEARS" Begins Principal Photography
Principal photography has begun on Walt Disney Pictures’ comedy, "The Country Bears," starring famed bear musicians Ted and Fred Bedderhead, Tennessee O’Neal and Zeb Zoober. Bear-band hangers-on: founding manager Henry Dixon Taylor, girlfriend Trixie St. Clair and Big Al play themselves in supporting roles and are joined by newcomer Beary Barrinson, playing the band’s biggest fan. Acclaimed actor Christopher Walken stars as the villain banker Reed Thimple. Directed by Peter Hastings, the film is produced Andrew Gunn and Jeffrey Chernov. Filming is taking place at various locations in and around the Los Angeles area, including five weeks on the Golden Oak Ranch in Newhall, CA where a full-scale replica of the famed Country Bear Hall was constructed. "The Country Bears" is scheduled for a summer 2002 release. Buena Vista Pictures distributes.
Popular 70’s band, The Country Bears, have reunited to shoot their first-ever feature film aptly titled "The Country Bears." Like so many other bands of their era and stature, the members of the legendary group The Country Bears were torn apart by the perils of their own success: ego, women, jealousy, and a little too much honey. In the 1970s The Country Bears — brothers Ted and Fred Bedderhead, Tennessee O’Neal, and Zeb Zoober —pioneered a unique Southern Rock sound that still influences music today. After ten years of separation and unfulfilling existences, the band has now reunited to film their first major motion picture. "The Country Bears" is the story of a band reuniting to save a legendary concert hall. A greedy banker (Christopher Walken) is about to foreclose on the historic Country Bear Hall — unless the group’s one-time manager Henry Dixon Taylor and eager young fan Beary Barrinson can convince the bitter ex-members of the rock band to put aside their differences and perform a benefit concert to save the musical venue.
The Country Bears started life as a back woods, homegrown, country-bluegrass-rock trio, comprised of Fred and Ted Bedderhead and Tennessee O’Neal. This nucleus of the band met in high school and was eventually joined by Zeb Zoober. The Bears’ sound was built around the unique styling of Tennessee’s one-string-thang, Fred’s harmonica, Ted’s guitar playing, and Zeb’s fiddle. The band’s first album, titled The Album What’s That’s Our First, included the single Where Nobody Knows My Name. They began touring nationally and soon began to build a following.
Classic albums such as The Brown Furry Album, This Here’s The Untitled Album, Give Us Paws and Pawsative Vibrations followed. Huge road shows such as the Furget It! Tour, the Bar Bearic Tour, and The Hiber Nation Tour supported the records and proved the Bears could entertain a wide array of audiences in venues as diverse as the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and Madison Square Garden in New York City. The live version of Straight to the Heart of Love, became a rock anthem and was their first bonified top ten song. Artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton listed The Country Bears among their key influences.
As their success grew, the internal conflicts… primarily between Ted and the rest of the band…. intensified. Ted was just pushing them too hard and they separated many times over the course of their tumultuous and momentous career. When the group reunited at Live AID in 1983, it marked a significant turning point, as it was the first indication that Zeb’s taste for honey had taken a serious turn. After another brief hiatus, the band hit the road with the first Lalapolooza Tour in 1991. By this time, Tennessee’s problems with his longtime girlfriend and Bear’s backup singer Trixie St. Clair were reaching a boiling point and this quickly became a major distraction for him and a major source of irritation for Ted. Half way through the tour, the rest of the band decided they couldn’t put up with Ted any longer. When they confronted him about his harrowing work schedule, the band broke up once and for all. A picture of a solo Fred playing harmonica, graced the cover of Rolling Stone the next month under the headline "THE DAY THE MOSH PIT CRIED."
Christopher Walken ("The Deer Hunter," "America’s Sweethearts," "The Affair of the Necklace") leads a cast of human characters that interact with the bears. MC Gainey ("The New Guy," "Con Air," "Breakdown") plays Roadie, the long-time bus driver for the band. Eli Marienthal ("American Pie," "The Iron Giant," "Jack Frost"), Meagan Fay ("Magnolia," "Father’s Day") and Stephen Tobolowsky ("The Insider," "Groundhog’s Day," "Sneakers") make up Beary Barrinson’s human family — brother Dex, mother Mrs. Barrinson and father Mr. Barrinson.
Daryl Mitchell ("Veronica’s Closet," "Galaxy Quest," "Home Fries") and Diedrich Bader ("The Drew Carey Show," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Office Space") portray the well-meaning policemen - Officers Hamm and Cheets. Alex Rocco ("The Godfather," "The Wedding Planner," "That Thing You Do") also appears on screen as the band’s former manager Rip Holland.
In addition, some of music’s top stars will appear in cameo roles.
The eight bear characters in the film are voiced by celebrity talent - including Haley Joel Osment ("The Sixth Sense"), Charles S. Dutton ("ROC"), Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Richard Kind ("Spin City"), Deidrich Bader ("The Drew Carey Show"), Stephen Root ("O Brother Where Art Thou"), comedienne Candy Ford ("Wayne Brady Sketch Show") and James Gammon ("Nash Bridges") - and are performed by suit performers and puppeteers from the famed Jim Henson Creature Shop, who have created the complicated bear costumes that are complete with detailed facial articulation.
"The Country Bears" is based on an original screenplay written by Mark Perez and Paul Rugg, inspired by The Country Bear Jamboree Attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim.
Singer-songwriter John Hiatt contributes his wit and storytelling talents to five original songs written for the film. Famed music producer Glyn Johns (who in the seventies produced bands such as The Eagles, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Eric Clapton) serves as the film’s executive music producer. Béla Fleck, a banjo artist who combines traditional bluegrass with jazz and classical music, contributes the composition "Bear Mountain Hop" to open the film. Hollywood Records recording artist Jennifer Paige will appear in the film as a waitress in a spirited production number of a John Hiatt song called "Kick It Into Gear," which is just one of several musical numbers in the film.
PETER HASTINGS (Director) makes his motion picture directing debut with "The Country Bears," following his success creating and executive producing "Disney’s One Saturday Morning" for ABC.
Previously, Warner Bros. provided a home for his talents as one of the creators, writers, and producers of the animated series "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs." Hastings won three Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for "Animaniacs" and garnered his fourth Emmy as producer and writer of the prime-time spin-off "Pinky and the Brain."
Hastings was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Haverford, Pennsylvania. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles, where he graduated as the Fender Outstanding Bass Player of the Year in 1985.
Hastings was a company member at the famed Groundlings Theatre in Hollywood for four years, writing and performing sketch comedy and improvisation. Hastings’ exposure with the Groundlings led to acting roles and a string of national commercials before he landed several writing jobs, including at Nickelodeon and other studios.
ANDREW GUNN (Producer), through his Disney-based GUNNfilms, which was started in July of 2000, has been charged with creating ideas and developing material with universal charm — not just for kids, not just for adults - for the Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures labels. Working with scribe Mark Perez, of the Disney in-house writers program, "The Country Bears" is the first of these broad-appeal event pictures to go into production.
Gunn is currently developing remakes based on the Walt Disney Pictures’ classic comedies "Witch Mountain," written by Adam Kulakow, and "Freaky Friday," as well as a feature film inspired by the "Haunted Mansion" attraction at the Disney theme parks written by Disney in-house writer David Berenbaum. He is producing "Not Kappa Material" written by "Freaky Friday" scribe Heather Hach with music video director L’Wren Scott set to direct. Gunn is also producing "Minute Men" from David Diamond and David Weissman, writers of the hit film "The Family Man," starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni.
Previously, Gunn spent four years in charge of development and production for John Hughes and Ricardo Mestros at their Disney-based Great Oaks Entertainment. During this time he contributed to such films as "101 Dalmatians," "Flubber," "Home Alone 3" and "Reach the Rock." He was also the co-producer of Hollywood Pictures’ "Eddie," starring Whoopi Goldberg.
Over a two-year period, Gunn rose through the ranks at David Permut’s Permut Presentations. He joined the company as a story editor and eventually became a production vice president responsible for running all feature film and television development and production. Gunn oversaw projects such as "Face/Off" starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Gunn made the move to Los Angeles to attend The Annenberg School for Communication at The University of Southern California, where he graduated at the top of his class with a Masters of Arts in 1993.
He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Julia, who is Vice President of Current Programming for Warner Bros. Television.
JEFFREY CHERNOV (Producer) most recently executive produced two hit comedies: "The Replacements" starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman, and "10 Things I Hate About You," starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.
His other producing credits include "Desperate Measures," "Holy Man" starring Eddie Murphy, "Sleeping With The Enemy" starring Julia Roberts, "First Kid," "Bad Company," Eddie Murphy’s "Raw," "Dead Zone," "Richard Pryor: Live In Concert," and Walt Disney Pictures’ live-action adventure "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey."
Prior to this, he served as Vice President of Production for Disney/Touchstone Pictures, where he was involved with some of the studio’s most successful films, including "Pretty Woman" and "Dead Poets Society."
As a production manager and assistant director, Chernov’s credits include "Ruthless People," "Escape From New York," "The Thing," "Body Heat," "Cutter’s Way" and "StarMan."
In 1999, MARK PEREZ (Screenwriter) began his career as a "professional" screenwriter by landing an on-the-lot deal with Walt Disney Pictures. Under a unique arrangement reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Perez worked on many of the studio's comedies and wrote several original screenplays during the one-year special writer-in-residence pact.
As Perez's term deal at Disney was expiring, he delivered a first draft of the screenplay for "The Country Bears." Within 24 hours, Perez had his first ‘greenlit’ picture. His second -- "Frank McKlusky, C.I." starring Dave Sheridan and produced by Bob Simonds ("The Waterboy") -- is also currently shooting, giving Perez the enviable position of having two screenplays in active production at the same time with Walt Disney Pictures.
Perez just entered into an agreement to pen two screenplays for Disney and is negotiating a deal to write a sitcom with Touchstone Television.
Recently, Perez sold two other original scripts that are headed towards production. "The Party Professional" was pursued by several studios and ultimately sold to Universal Studios, with Casey Silver's Gone Fishin' Productions attached to produce. Perez is currently developing the screenplay with an eye toward a Fall 2001 start. In addition, Sid Ganis ("Big Daddy," "Deuce Bigelow") is producing Perez’s screenplay "Cap’n Ricky… Also Featuring Karl" for Miramax/Kinowelt USA. That film is scheduled to begin principal photography later this year.
PAUL RUGG (Screenwriter) is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning writer, actor and producer. He has also been nominated for five Emmy Awards and a Cable ACE Award.
While performing as one of the founding members of The Acme Players comedy group in Los Angeles, Rugg was spotted by producers at Warner Bros. and asked to join the writing staff for a new show they were developing called "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs." Rugg served as supervising story editor for the initial 65 episodes, in addition to writing some 30 shorts for the Emmy Award winning program.
After "Animaniacs," Rugg was asked to help develop "Steven Spielberg Presents Freakazoid!" as one of the shows producers. He wrote many of the shows including the episode that garnered "Freakazoid!" an Emmy Award in 1997 for Outstanding Animated Program. Spielberg also cast Rugg as the voice of "Freakazoid."
Rugg has written a variety of projects for Spielberg including: the animated feature "Noah’s Blimp, " the CD-ROM "Someone’s In The Kitchen," and was a consultant on the animated series "Steven Spielberg Presents Toonsylvania."
In the live action arena, Rugg produced and starred in the "Manny the Uncanny" segments for ABC’s highly successful programming block "One Saturday Morning." Rugg lent his acting talents to two other "One Saturday Morning" segments: "Flindiggery Do" and "The Tube Dwellers." In addition, he is developing an animated series for Dustin Hoffman’s Punch Productions and Walt Disney Television Animation.
As a voice over actor, Rugg has appeared regularly on such hit series as "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs," "Pinky and the Brain," "Histeria," "Steven Spielberg Presents Toonsylvania," and "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command."
Rugg is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and currently resides in the San Fernando Valley with his wife and young daughter. He is currently at work penning the next big screen adventure for "The Country Bears."
Joining director Hastings creative team is director photography Mitchell Amundsen (2nd unit DP on "Pearl Harbor," "EDTV," and "Armageddon"); production designer Dan Bishop ("All That Glitters," "My First Mister," "The Replacements," "Life," "The Odd Couple II"); and costume designer Genevieve Tyrrell ("The Way of the Gun," "Drive Me Crazy," "Go," "Suicide Kings," "Swingers").
TA (5/29/01)