A reminder to fans that Avatar 3 (which we do not know the title of yet) has been delayed another year and will (theoretically) premiere in December 2025. Source Jon Landau's Twitter account:
jonplandau
A big congratulations to team Avatar for a stellar night at the @saturnawards this weekend!
The team took home four wins, including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Film Direction, Best Film Screenwriting, and Best Film Visual / Special Effects. (📸: Saturn Awards / Electric Entertainment)
Radical manager against conservative artist: Jon Landau / Bruce Springsteen, Cover me. Landau loved its modern sheen
'The times are tough now, just getting tougher This old world is rough, it's just getting rougher Cover me, come on baby, cover me Well, I'm looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me'
"Radical manager against conservative artist:
Bruce Springsteen was indifferent to the track from the start, often outright hostile to it. It struck him as too light, too pop, too obvious. These were among its virtues, Jon Landau insisted, and anyway, none of that belied the intensity with which Bruce whipped home the crucial line: “Wrap your arms around and cover me!”
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Bruce Springsteen: Cover Me (Live at LA Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA - September 1985)
"Meantime, a friend of Landau’s, record executive David Geffen, asked if Bruce would be interested in writing a song for Donna Summer, who had just been signed to Geffen’s label. Summer was recording her first album with producer Quincy Jones, who was hot off making Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. There was even some talk of Bruce and Donna performing a duet. It was an intriguing idea: the King of Rock and Roll recording with the Queen of Disco. Bruce wasn’t entirely certain how he wanted to proceed, but he did write a song. While in the studio with Bonds, he gathered the E Street Band for a demo session. When Jon Landau heard the result, a song called “Cover Me,” combining Springsteen’s rock combustion with a sledgehammer version of the typical Summer dance beat, he smelled a hit."
...
"While making Born in the U.S.A., this conflict centered around one song, “Cover Me.” Landau says he knew the song belonged in the next (rock) album the moment he heard what was supposed to be nothing more than a tossed-off demo. Bruce was indifferent to the track from the start, often outright hostile to it. It struck him as too light, too pop, too obvious. These were among its virtues, Landau insisted, and anyway, none of that belied the intensity with which Bruce whipped home the crucial line: “Wrap your arms around and cover me!” Although the song was closer to pop than rock—and in its rhythms closer to postdisco dance music than either—it had a stinging guitar solo. Landau loved its modern sheen; Bruce knew its value—he’d created it, after all—but he wasn’t sure what it said about him. The more anachronistic shape of his soul and rockabilly-based tunes was secure and comforting. In all their discussions about the album, Landau kept dredging up “Cover Me” and Bruce kept kicking it back under the rug, radical manager against conservative artist."
Dave Marsh
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Bruce Springsteen - Cover Me (from Born In The U.S.A. Live: London 2013)
Some missed music opportunities are present in the most obvious form possible, if you catch my drift. For instance, you heard the cases of some songs being meant for someone and because the latter rejected them, they became hits for someone else. Some of these situations eventually turn nasty, though this was not the case with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith. The story goes that Bruce struggled with the tune on the link, so he gave the piece to Patti Smith who transformed the song into one of the most anthemic expressions of love, so even Mr. Springsteen covered his own composition with her lyrics later on as an admission of Smith's greatness. To be honest, I still think Smith made a better version of his ditty, she locates a certain ferociousness Springsteen only hints at.
Congratulations to James Cameron and Jon Landau for their Producer's Guild of America's Award Nomination for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
RED BANK, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 1975: (L-R) Manager, record producer, and music critic Jon Landau, singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and model and Springsteen's then-girlfriend Karen Darvin pose for a portrait in September 1975 at a backyard party in Red Bank, New Jersey. The occasion marks the success of Springsteen's third album, Born to Run, released in August, 1975 to wide commercial and critical acclaim. Jon Landau, a widely regarded journalist and music critic for notable 1970s media including The Real Paper, Crawdaddy Magazine, and Rolling Stone Magazine since its first issue in 1967, co-produced the album and began to manage Springsteen's career at this time. Landau's 1974 proclamation, in the pages of The Real Paper, that, "I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen," added much momentum to the young Springsteen's career. (Photo by David Gahr/Getty Images)
What acting is all about 💙 See Sigourney Weaver’s incredible performance as Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water, now playing only in theaters. Get tickets: Link in Bio.