News

The piano heard on Derek & The Dominoes’ “Layla” and other classic rock staples is set to hit the auction block this week.

Eaton & Brennan Auctions’ Hit Factory Collection auction, starting today, features items and memorabilia from the famed New York studio, most notably the Baldwin grand piano that featured on the 1970 hit “Layla.”

“Steeped in music history, the piano bears copious markings from its use by legendary musicians, including unique scratches beneath its ‘Baldwin’ nameplate,” Eaton & Brennan Auctions said of the instrument.

“It is featured in a documentary about legendary music producer Tom Dowd,...

Guitarist and songwriter Gary Rossington, the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, who survived their 1977 plane crash and played with the band until this year, died Sunday. He was 71.

“It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” the band wrote on its official Facebook page. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does.”

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Lynyrd Skynyrd Guitarist Gary Rossington Recovering After Emergency Heart Surgery Related Story Lynyrd Skynyrd Biopic Producer Slams Band Suit As Attacking Freedom Of Speech

No other details were provided.

Rossington was badly injured in the 1977 plane crash that killed four members of the legendary Southern rock band including frontman Ronnie Van Zant. Rossington broke both of his legs,...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival is launching a new industry event focusing on Africa. The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy, hosted in collaboration with the Realness Institute of Africa, will take place online from 26 September to 2 October 2021 and will welcome 10-12 participants from all over the African continent. The project offers a tailored program featuring masterclasses and meetings with internationally established professionals. The aim is to enhance participants’ understanding of the challenges facing the film industry, while allowing them to expand their personal network of contacts and develop their professional skill set. “The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy will allow us to introduce our program for young professionals in this region. Participants will be able to connect with Industry Academy alumni in Latin America, the Middle East, the USA and Europe, joining an international network of future industry players,” said Markus Duffner, the new head of Locarno Pro.

Exclusive: Paris-based Reel Suspects...

Exclusive: Tyler Posey (MTV’s Teen Wolf) has signed on to star opposite Lelia Symington (Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash) in Brut Force, the first feature from writer-director Eve Symington.

Slated to go before cameras this fall in California, the film follows Sloane (Lelia Symington), a reporter who returns to her rural California hometown to investigate harassment of local vineyard workers, uncorking a tangled web of crime, corruption and murder behind wine country’s shiny façade.

Posey, who was recently seen in the Blumhouse thriller Truth or Dare, will play the love interest and “homme fatale.” Vico Escorcia (History’s Texas Rising) will also co-star as the missing girl and catalyst to the neo-noir tale.

The production has used the multi-union white paper “The Safe Way Forward” to create a risk assessment and production prevention plan, which will continue to be a collaborative work-in-progress,...

It may be a blessing of sorts for anyone interested in checking out “Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash” that its VOD release is coming in the middle of a pandemic, when not very many people are rushing to get back on planes again anyway. The film delivers on the promise — or threat — of its title in a big, vivid way, with enough drawn-out suspense once engines start backfiring and enough grisly carnage on the ground to give most viewers at least a second thought about flying again soon, at least on a prop-engine plane, and especially one with musicians on board. Despite its probably modest budget, “Street Survivors” is actually first-class as convincingly harrowing aeronautical disaster movies go, if you’re a follower of the genre that has Peter Weir’s 1993 “Fearless” to live up to.

Whether it’s a superior example of a rock biopic is another matter,...

Saban Films has acquired the North American and U.K. rights to Jared Cohn’s “Reactor,” starring Bruce Willis. The Exchange is handling international sales at the Cannes Market.

“Reactor” follows a former soldier as he takes down a gang of mercenaries whose leader’s (Willis) lust for revenge leads to him holding a nuclear power plant hostage.

Cohn (“Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash”) wrote the script along with Cam Cannon (“USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage”), and Stephen Cyrus Sepher (“Heist”).

Almost Never Films’ Danny Chan and Danny Roth, 308 Entertainment’s Corey Large and Johnny Messner are producing with executive producer Steven Eads.

The film marks Saban’s second collaboration with Willis, Roth and Large in the past year, having recently acquired “Breach.”

Saban’s Bill Bromiley commented: “Bruce continues to be a leader in the action genre, and we could not be more...

Lynyrd Skynyrd are stretching their farewell tour to “Freebird”-sized proportions by adding dozens of new summer dates. The group announced its Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour last year, and will resume it this year with a set at the Stagecoach festival. Cody Jinks, Hank Williams, Jr. and Bad Company will each appear with them on select dates. Tickets will go on sale on February 8th at 10 a.m. local time.

“It takes a long time to finish a farewell tour when you’re like us, ’cause we’ve played everywhere,...