Soon people started talking about how the group's hit song "Dancing in the Streets" was about social uprising. [68] Three months later, twenty minutes of the film specifically, the musical sequences "Fake Your Way to the Top", "Family", "When I First Saw You", and "Dreamgirls" were screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, with most of the cast and crew in attendance. The film version references elements of Motown history to add backstory to the musical's plot, and there are many homages to a number of distinct 1960s/1970s R&B stars (besides The Supremes and Motown acts such as Marvin Gaye, the Jackson 5, and Tammi . He signs a trio of young women, the Dreamettes, gets them a job backing an R&B performer, James "Thunder" Early, establishes his own record label and starts wheeling and dealing. "[39] All of the new songs feature music composed by original Dreamgirls stage composer Henry Krieger. Andr 3000 of Outkast was also offered the role, but declined. Meanwhile, The Dreams have become superstars and Rainbow Records, having moved to Los Angeles is now the biggest pop business in the country. Cast members of Munopco Music Theatre's "Dreamgirls," left to right: Taylor Hood, Krystle Tate, Arianna Rodriguez and Rebekah Gray. But there are things -- much more important than specific details of time or place -- that the film gets very right, such as record label boss Taylor's cold indifference to the act he now realizes is washed up or Early's heroin overdose death. By sticking to a highly publicized diet of water, lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper (also known as the Master Cleanse), Knowles rapidly lost twenty pounds, which she gained back once production ended. [67], DreamWorks and Paramount began a significant awards campaign for Dreamgirls while the film was still in production. Community actress Yvette Nicole Brown was also in the running for the role but was eventually cast as the legal secretary to Foxxs character. When Early flames out, Curtis makes the Dreamettes into . . The DVD version was issued in two editions: a one-disc standard version and a two-disc "Showstopper Edition". But for many girls, fame also offered an array of new opportunities. [16] That same year, Geffen, who ran his Warner Bros.-associated Geffen Pictures film production company at the time, began talks with Broadway lyricist and producer Howard Ashman to adapt it as a star vehicle for Whitney Houston, who was to portray Deena. Movie. "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" was the Dreamgirls soundtrack's second single. Although loosely based on The Supremes, the movie is a work of fiction. "Dreamgirls" draws its story from the relationship between the Supremes and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr., although the end result is pure fiction, cinema and musical theater. [71], Following the success of the Cannes screening, DreamWorks and Paramount began a widespread "For Your Consideration" advertisement campaign, raising several eyebrows by demoting Jennifer Hudson to consideration for Best Supporting Actress and presenting Beyonc Knowles as the sole Best Actress candidate, as opposed to having both compete for Best Actress awards. "Love You I Do," with lyrics by Siedah Garrett, is performed in the film by Effie during a rehearsal at the Rainbow Records studio. [16], While Condon had intended to cast relatively unknown actresses as all three Dreams,[13] R&B singer Beyonc Knowles lobbied for the part of Deena Jones,[22] and was cast after a successful screen test. The girl group boom began to fizzle in the late 1960s, in part because of the British Invasion. Original Broadway Cast of 'Dreamgirls' Feels Left Out of Movie History. Delivery time is estimated using our proprietary method which is based on the buyer's proximity to the item location, the shipping service selected, the . Dreamgirls is a 2006 American musical drama film written and directed by Bill Condon and jointly produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. He looks like Ike Turner, borrows his stage moves from Wilson and has some Marvin Gaye hovering over his character. The Broadway show had been had been partly financed by music mogul turned film producer David Geffen, who retained rights to produce the movie. [56], Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film three and a half stars (out of four) and the number-two position on his "best of 2006" list, stating that "despite transitional bumps, Condon does Dreamgirls proud". This bright, beautiful and booming-voiced talent is a perfect example of how NOT winning the title of American Idol . The fantastic wigs look right, too. . Curtis Taylor, Jr., a car salesman, breaks into the music business with big dreams. "We get young teenage girls at front and center in mainstream pop culture." The Supremes were three girls -- Ross, Ballard and Mary Wilson -- who grew up in the projects and originally called themselves the Primettes. "We listen to Pat Boone covering Little Richard songs now and it's just laughable," she says, "but at the time that was a real phenomenon. The Motown sound was characterized by a straight-forward, grounded beat (bass and drums) and melodic hook. Technical Specs, See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro, Silver Tie Music Producer in Final Audience with Marty Madison, Greatest Supporting Actress Oscar Performances (1990-Now), Broadway to Hollywood Musical Adaptations, (based on the original broadway production book by), director of photography (as Tobias Schliessler), makeup department head (as Tym Shutchai Buacharern) / makeup designer, hair stylist: Ms. Knowles (as Kim Kimble), character dental prosthetic designer: Eddie Murphy, additional second second assistant director, second assistant director: second unit (uncredited), lead designer: end title sequence, Picture Mill, construction coordinator (as Stacey McIntosh), prosthetic dental appliances: Eddie Murphy, assistant property master (as Andy Siegel) / prop master: second unit, illustrator: Cleopatra images (as Felipe Sanchez), art department production assistant (uncredited), production sound mixer (as Willie Burton), first assistant sound editor (as Josie Nericcio), supervising foley editor (as Thomas Small), sound designer / supervising sound editor, special effects technician (as Don Black), special effects coordinator (as Don Frazee), special effects technician (as Jim Lorimer), digital compositor: Gray Matter Visual Effects / i/o manager: Gray Matter Visual Effects, digital compositor: Gray Matter Visual Effects (as Joey Brattesani), rotoscope artist: Gray Matter Visual Effects, motion graphics montages: Black Box Digital, visual effects producer: Gray Matter Visual Effects, lead compositor: end title sequence, Picture Mill (as Joshua Novak), matte painter: Gray Matter Visual Effects, digital compositor: Gray Matter Visual Effects, digital compositor: Gray Matter Visual Effects (as Colleen Smith), 3D animator: end title sequence, Picture Mill, stunt performer (as Johnny Cenatiempo) / stunts, stunt double: Amika Noni Rose (uncredited), additional moving light programmer / dimmer board operator, lighting technician: additional photography, first assistant camera: "c" camera (as Anthony Cappello) / first assistant camera: second unit (as Anthony Cappello), first assistant camera: additional photography, second assistant camera: "c" camera / second assistant camera: second unit, 24 frame video playback operator (as Dave McGraw), camera operator: "c" camera / director of photography: second unit, assistant chief lighting technician: additional photography, additional electrician (as Peter Villani), assistant chief lighting technician (as Michael Yope), animator: end title sequence, Picture Mill, lead animator: end title sequence, Picture Mill (as Joshua Novak), costume production assistant (as Daisy Alexandra Sylbert), digital intermediate technologist: Company 3, digital intermediate on-line editor: Company 3, colorist: Company 3 / digital intermediate executive producer: Company 3, assistant location manager (as Diana Lara), key assistant location manager (uncredited), choreographer: musical numbers / drum consultant, music editor: vocal sync (as Timothy Boot), music arranger: original Broadway production, composer: additional music / music arranger / music arranger: strings, composer: additional music / supervising music editor, music arranger (as Matt Sullivan) / music supervisor (as Matt Sullivan) / soundtrack producer (as Matt Sullivan), composer: original music / music arranger: original score / producer: original score, orchestrator: original Broadway production, transportation dispatcher (as Karen Chang), production assistant: second unit (as Lou Bonachea), production coordinator: Miami / production coordinator: second unit/pickups, second assistant accountant (as Cristina Duncan) / second assistant accountant, set production assistant: additional photography, Los Angeles, production secretary: additional photography, set production assistant: additional photography, Los Angeles (as Bill Greenfield), personal assistant: Mr. Murphy (as Jemal D. Guillory), additional craft service (as Noel Harris), executive assistant: Mr. Murphy (as Charisse Hewitt Webster), Stand in for Beyonc Knowles (as Erica Bynum), systems administrator: Graty Matter Visual Effects, production office coordinator: Gray Matter Visual Effects, creative supervisor: end title sequence, Picture Mill, coordinator: end title sequence, Picture Mill, producer: end title sequence, Picture Mill, production assistant (as Daisy Alexandra Sylbert), personal assistant: Mr. Murphy (as Randy L. Webster), assistant production coordinator: additional photography. Three Supremes albums Let the Sunshine In, Cream of the Crop, and Touch were reworked into Deena Jones & The Dreams album designs, with the only differences in the designs being the substitution of the names and images of the Supremes with those of Deena Jones & the Dreams. [50] As of 2017[update], total domestic video sales to date are at $95.1 million. Free shipping for many products! With three Golden Globe awards and eight Academy Award nominations, Dreamgirls has renewed interest in the girl groups of the 1960s as well as Motown Records, the Detroit-based company that became one of the most influential labels of the time. [9] Dreamgirls received eight NAACP Image Award nominations, winning for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson) and Outstanding Album (the soundtrack LP). "It's sort of the female corollary to doo-wop at the beginning," says Jacqueline Warwick, author of the new book Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identityin the 1960's and professor of music at Dalhousie University. [19][34] The scene was felt by everyone involved to be pivotal to the film, as "And I Am Telling You" was Jennifer Holliday's show-stopping number in the original Broadway musical. Character description, analysis and casting breakdown for Effie White from Dreamgirls. Similarities to Aretha Franklin, however, are also hardly coincidental. Written by composer Henry Krieger and playwright Tom Eyen, Dreamgirls is said to be a fictional story based on girl groups of the 1960s such as The Supremes, The Shirelles and The Marvelettes - but speculation that it was based on The Supremes and their relationship with Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records has been It also employed call-and-response vocals and heavy use of tambourine. [20] Condon did not start work on the Dreamgirls script until after making the Alfred Kinsey biographical film Kinsey (2004). [17], When Geffen co-founded DreamWorks in 1994 and dissolved Geffen Pictures, the rights to Dreamgirls remained with Warner Bros. Warner planned to go ahead with the film with director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Tina Andrews[7] in the late 1990s, following the success of Touchstone Pictures's Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do with It. transform The Dreams into a top-selling mainstream pop group. These grown-up themes contrast with The Shangri-Las singing healsongs about teenage drama. In casting Hudson, Condon recalled that he initially was not confident he'd made the right decision, but instinctively cast Hudson after she'd auditioned several times because he "just didn't believe any of the others. When Jimmy bombs in front of an all-white Miami Beach supper club audience, Curtis sends him out on the road alone, keeping The Dreamettes behind to headline in his place. The connection between the fictional Dreams and the real-life Supremes is underlined by costume designer Sharen Davis, whose magnificent creations accurately echo the outlandish outfits Ross, Wilson and Ballard used to wriggle into. Filming & Production "The most surprised was Motown. . The site's critics consensus states: "Dreamgirls' simple characters and plot hardly detract from the movie's real feats: the electrifying performances and the dazzling musical numbers. Then everyone learns of Jimmy's unexpected death from a heroin overdose, which greatly upsets Lorrell. Of course, some of the girls were so young that chaperones accompanied them on toursometimes their parents. | Advertising Notice [95][96] The photo shoot montage which accompanies "When I First Saw You", as well as the subplot of Deena being forced to star in Curtis' Cleopatra film against her will, reflect both scenes from and the production of Mahogany, a 1975 Motown film starring Diana Ross and directed by Motown CEO Berry Gordy. Horn players would never run all over the stage as they do in "Dreamgirls" or they would be too out of breath to play the instruments. Rated PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content. [37], Beyonc Knowles elected to lose weight to give the mature Deena Jones of the 1970s a different look than the younger version of the character. Jennifer Kate Hudson was born on September 12, 1981 in Chicago, Illinois to Darnell Donerson (ne Hudson) & Samuel Simpson. Wake Me Up from this 'Dreamgirls' nightmare! [104], The payola scheme used in the film's script, to which Robinson took offense, is identical to the payola scheme allegedly used by Gordy and the other Motown executives, according to sworn court depositions from Motown executive Michael Lushka, offered during the litigation between the label and its chief creative team, HollandDozierHolland. During the course of production, Paramount's parent company, Viacom, would purchase DreamWorks, aligning the two studios under one umbrella (and giving the senior studio US distribution rights on behalf of DreamWorks). That isn't to say teenagers weren't also listening to the original Little Richard. "Dreamgirls' Best Picture snub and Oscar night thud", 'Dreamgirls' banked on Best Picture, and Lost, "Nominees & Winners for the 79th Academy Awards", "The 38th NAACP Image Awards Takes Place With Superstar Entertainer LL Cool J As Host", National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "Screen Actors Guild Honors Outstanding Film and Television Performances in 13 Categories at the 13th Annual SAG Awards", "Official press release for International Press Academy Satellite Awards Nominations", "Beyonc, Jennifer Hudson Top BET Awards", "Zack Snyder's Justice League Tops 'Oscars Cheer Moment' List", "The 79th Academy Awards (2007) Nominees and Winners", "Dreamgirls (2006) Nominees and Winners", "The 12th Critics' Choice Awards Winners and Nominees", "One stage of film's marketing is on stage", Gordy Album Discography, Part 1 (19621981), "Diana Ross Talks About 'Dreamgirls,' Secrets to Staying Power", "Mary Wilson on the New Film, 'Dreamgirls', "Does 'Dreamgirls' Offer Lowdown on Motown? 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