On a seamless Wednesday afternoon, Dolby Studios in SoHo hosted a private exhibition of the new hit musical biopic of pop music icon, Elton John, Rocketman. Following a private screening in Times Square the previous day, the audience got to enjoy clips, scenes, and commentary from Director Dexter Fletcher and actor Taron Egerton. Using the Bluetooth Dolby headphones, participants can fully immerse themselves in their iPad station in the first room. Users can control the headphones volume and noise canceling abilities via touch on the right and left earphones. A wonderful pairing for an immersive experience.
Upon entering, guests use some styling points from Elton John himself, by snagging a pair of sparkly star sunglasses in front of a floor to ceiling screen displaying the star himself. The hallway to the first exhibit is made up of more screens and mirrors, giving a Times Square Fun House type of drama. The first room is dark with disco balls dripping from the ceiling and iPad stations with Dolby Bluetooth headphones to watch the trailer.
Keep walking down the hall and there is a recreation of Elton John’s childhood living room, complete with a modern plasma screen TV playing more clips and interviews. The mid-century modern décor of this room and the old wooden piano is uncanny compared to the set of the movie. Just across the hall in another glass room are more screens and more headphones, accompanied by a Dolby specialist, to teach you all about the technology. The last room is a bar and dining room that is recreated as the Troubadour Club in LA, complete with a stage and white grand piano. The bar kindly serves an afternoon tea service with a variety of loose-leaf teas, finger sandwiches, and other sweet delights.
The tour does not stop there! Head downstairs for a photo opt and a peek at two of the costumes from the movie. Sunglasses, hats and an assortment of jackets and scarves are displayed for the posers’ choice.
After being taken up a discreetly located elevator, there was an intimate Q&A session with Director Dexter Fletcher. “And there’s Tate Donovan!” Fletcher kicked off the interview pointing into the crowd with a giggle. In the interview, Fletcher covers everything from his love for silhouettes to the nitty-gritty of the story and what makes Rocketman special.
To kick things off, Fletcher discussed the element of Rocketman and his inspiration behind the recurring imagery of floating and sinking in the film:
“Well, that’s a combination of Lee Hole and the screenplay that I read, that image of him in the pool. I think what makes Rocketman particularly interesting is that it is one of the few songs that crossed over, for me, from the fantasy element to the aspects of his life that’s all out of control and have this kind of outer body experience into the reality of a performance, and then again back into something quite crazy and imaginative in terms of shooting into the air. It is the very backbone of the story you know; in that, it is his story. He flies and he burns bright and that comes at a cost. I think […] it’s when we know that the story behind the curtain, the story behind the show of someone who is at a point in their life where they are literally at the bottom. There’s a moment at The Troubadour where he is flying and everything is quite elevated, then he is rock bottom. I suppose it is quite literal in that way.”
He also discussed what it was like working with the star of the film, Taron Egerton, and the process of him becoming Elton John and what they wanted him playing Elton to be like:
“He and I worked on Eddie The Eagle together and we had a really good collaborative experience on that. What great actors are searching for is the truth, one way or another, truth at the moment, and Taron and I talk about that a lot. When Rocketman came along and [Matthew Vaughn] called me and said Taron in an R rated musical, I was like, “So that’s it!” I already knew that there was something really exciting and clever about that. Taron and I just sort of fell in the groove on that. We just sort hit the ground running because we had worked with each other, we knew we wanted to find another project. I knew that he was incredible with his voice […], he’s more of a ballad singer and we had to nudge him more towards a rock vocalization, and that sort of excited him in a different way.”
Elton John, as Executive Producer, and subject to the film, was a key process in the making of this film:
“Elton kind of set the ball rolling. Elton said to him, “Don’t do an imitation of me, do your take on my songs.” […] We were always very clear that we weren’t going to do an imitation or cover version of him, but we were doing the musical that was set to Elton John’s music. In theory, it could have been about anybody. It’s about Elton’s journey, but we like to think that there is a universality to the story, that means that it is not just so specific to Elton, and that is why it is not a biopic. It’s Elton’s recollections, his memories of how he felt at a certain time and what that meant to him.”
After the interview, the audience full of journalists and writers were permitted to ask their own questions, permitted that they state their favorite Elton John song first. Truly a stunning picture about the life of a music icon in his early days and about the highs and lows of his climb to fame, Rocketman is a must see for the music junkie.
The film is now playing.
