Tinsel news: Lang Lang gets a Hollywood biopic

Tinsel news: Lang Lang gets a Hollywood biopic

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norman lebrecht

September 23, 2020

The soft-soap Hollywood director Ron Howard has been signed to film Lang Lang’s life story.

The executive producers are Lang Lang and his agent, Jean-Jacques Cesbron.

Howard made the recent glossy biopic of Pavarotti.

Objections are already being raised that westerners lacking in an intimate knowledge of China’s rcent history cannot grasp the background of the country’s greatest entertainment celebrity.


Lang Lang with Cesbron

Comments

  • Gustavo says:

    With music by John Williams.

    Just to please Norman.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUaqLGkkRLM

  • anon says:

    Ooooh, the biopics of Lenny and Lang Lang coming out (no pun intended) next year, which bi(dextrous!) pianist should I see?

    I’d rather have Yuja Wang walk on my finders with steel heeled stilettos than see either movie.

  • Roman says:

    It’s interesting that the only people who raise objections about “westerners” are those who moved from China to the West at the age of 6 and who has no clue about Chinese culture themselves.

  • Mick the Knife says:

    Western imperialism? The shenanigans of Mao and a corrupt, oppressive government are your enemies.

  • I saw last week the biopic about Pavarotti, Howard did à very good work but a film about Lang Lang pfffffff…… Without me!

  • Nick2 says:

    After Howard’s sickening puff piece on Pavarotti last year we know exactly what to expect from this Lang Lang charade. Cesbron promised to make Lang Lang a world superstar when he was wooed away from IMG Artists. Another brick on that facade is now out in place while the talent goes slowly down the drain as evidenced by the recent Goldberg Variations release.

    • Nick says:

      Well, one wishes some others could play “Goldbergs” at least as well as Lang Lang, although Bach, definitely, is not his “FFF”. But a great master of the instrument Lang Lang always was, is and, most probably, will remain. His “Musikverein” recital is nothing short of unforgettable on all levels.

  • Eli says:

    Great idea! Classical music needs to start being more mainstream, that’s the only way it can survive.

    • It s better to keep the soul rather than be mainstream!

    • Agree with this. If this helps to attract more interest from more diverse audiences, it’s viable. The Hollywood’s version of Dr Zhivago has also little to do with the perception of this outstanding novel by a Russian reader, however, it did work well in making quite a few people around the world interested in the subject, and perhaps, in the great literature as such…

  • The View from America says:

    Oh, joy.

  • violin accordion says:

    I’d rather see a biopic about Richard Clayderman

  • Le Křenek du jour says:

    An apt title for this undoubtedly breathtaking chef d’oeuvre can be borrowed from the one of the best-known novels by renowned French writer Gilbert Cesbron, the namesake of Mr. Lang Lang’s agent:
    « C’est Mozart qu’on assassine »

    A Lang Lang performance rarely fails to remind me of this fine Cesbron novel, or rather of its title, which has become proverbial in the French language.

  • Fliszt says:

    Ok, so he’s got incredible keyboard dexterity, and he’s a media superstar. But his musicianship is comfortably 2nd class. He’s engaged not for his artistry, but because he sells tickets. He’s a fine man, but for a great pianist, look elsewhere. (Ron Howard hasn’t a clue about this).

  • Greg Bottini says:

    Starring Ken Jeong in the title role….

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    Oh, I see; more cultural appropriation. Off to the gulag for all of you!!! Howard will certainly end up there, with the thought police ready with an appropriate ‘cancel’.

  • gabe says:

    i’d watch a documentary on yanni (or kenny g), or listen on stereophile headphones at volume 10 to celine dion’s my heart will go on for two hours’ straight before i watch any puff piece on lang lang.

  • KANANPOIKA says:

    Oh, my fluttering heart….! Ron Howard…..”The Guru of Glop”…..

    Thank You….We’ll pass pass…….

  • Bruce says:

    They’re making a Hollywood movie based on his memoir. It’s not supposed to be authentic.

  • Minutewaltz says:

    Presumably Lang Lang had some say in who directed the biopic.

  • Ron Howard?!? If there is to be ANY film about Lang Lang, it MUST be directed by Fritz Fritz.

  • Geezer says:

    As Mozart once said of Clementi, he is a mere mechanicus. The very same can be said of all these PRC automatons. They can play all the notes in the right order, but without any real soul.

    Listen to a real pianist, the celebrated Les Dawson, play his “wrong note” version of Scott Joplin’s Entertainer or as he refers to it as an amusing Tarandittle. It takes real talent to play the “wrong notes” but in the correct order.

    Even Roy Plomley was impressed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWDphFwocAM

  • Edgar Self says:

    Under the false tinsel is the real tinsel. — Oscar Levant

  • John Willan says:

    What story is that then?

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