Beach Boys icon Brian Wilson insisted on just one thing when agreeing to have a new movie made about his life: that it be filmed here in Los Angeles.
Producers of June 5 release “Love & Mercy” were thinking of saving money on the budget by taking advantage of lucrative tax credits in Louisiana to shoot the film there. But they found a way to make an L.A. shoot work when Wilson, 72, put his foot down.
“Los Angeles is where I was born and where I will die,” said Wilson, who served as a consultant on the biopic. “It’s an integral part of my life and capturing the heartbeat of the city was so important to getting this film right.”
The movie, filmed last year before California expanded credits available to film productions, shot at instantly recognizable locations such as Zuma Beach; Bel Air; the Griffith Observatory; and Hollywood’s EastWest Studios on Sunset Boulevard, where many of the Beach Boys’ biggest hits were recorded.
“To be in the actual studio where Brian recorded ‘Pet Sounds’ was amazing and a great help to the film,” said Paul Dano, who plays the young Wilson. John Cusack plays the middle age Wilson, whom the actor called “the Mozart of rock ’n’ roll.”
Wilson added: “The idea to use two actors to play me was bold but it worked and Paul and John are geniuses – and I should know as I’ve been called a genius myself.”
Swift Works
Downtown L.A.’s Grammy Museum is seeing some of the best attendance numbers in its six-year history thanks to an exhibition highlighting the career of big-selling singer Taylor Swift.
The Taylor Swift Experience exhibit had been due to close a couple of weeks ago after a six-month run, but has now been extended through Oct. 4. During the first three months of the year, the exhibit helped pump up the museum’s attendance, with 35 percent more visitors than in the same period a year earlier.
The extension will give ticket holders for Swift’s sell-out five night August run of shows at Staples Center the chance to see the exhibit before those performances.
Along with props, costumes and other memorabilia from the seven-time Grammy winner’s career, the exhibit features a singing booth where fans can record their own version of Swift’s hit “We Are Never Getting Back Together.”
Making History
Canal 22 Mundo Fox Los Angeles is the city’s fastest-growing Spanish-language TV station, with the greatest prime-time ratings increase during the May sweeps. The station saw its prime-time ratings grow 61 percent over last year’s numbers among viewers 18 to 49, a bigger boost in that category than the local affiliates of rivals Telemundo and Azteca America.
The station said its success is being largely driven by the huge popularity of epic historical soap opera “Suleiman,” which has increased the 8 p.m. audience by 293 percent from a year ago in the 18-49 demographic.
“This is our ‘Game of Thrones,’ except it’s a real historical saga not fantasy drama,” said Otto Padron, president of channel owner Meruelo Media, of the telenovela about a sultan and his subjects in the Ottoman Empire of the 1500s.
Short Takes
L.A. actor James Wilder has already made his mark in show business with roles in “Melrose Place” and a string of films, but now he’s finding success in a second career as an architect. He has designed several award-winning homes in his Hollywood Hills neighborhood, which have been used for photo shoots, events and living spaces by the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Tom Ford, Blake Shelton, Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Wonder. … The Golden Door Resort, a luxurious Escondido sanctuary long popular with celebrities and chief executives, has undergone a modern redesign and facelift spearheaded by general manager Kathy Van Ness, a Manhattan Beach executive who knows all about luxury lifestyles having previously been president of Diane Von Furstenberg and managed many other designer brands. … Two Hollywood veterans are joining the expanding team at Amazon Studios. Emmy winner Albert Chang becomes chief operating officer, while Bob Berney, who worked on marketing and distribution of hits including “The Passion of the Christ” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” joins as head of movie distribution and marketing. … Downtown L.A.’s Contend, which creates and distributes data-driven content for clients such as NBC, Facebook, Lexus and Bud Light, has hired two executives. Jon Sneider, who previously handled advertising and digital for Microsoft Corp., has been named chief marketing officer and Kate Shepherd, who developed TV content for the BBC, and Fox TV, has been named executive vice president. … Special-effects icon Rick Baker raised more than $1 million from an auction of memorabilia collected during a storied Hollywood career that has seen him win seven Oscars. The 64-year-old makeup artist and creature creator is retiring and put 417 items under the hammer May 29 at the Hilton Universal City. Creations from “Men in Black” and “Michael Jackson: Moonwalker” proved especially popular at the auction, handled by Chatsworth memorabilia specialist Prop Store.
Staff reporter Sandro Monetti can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 226
