“ ‘Mozart in the Jungle,’ oboist Blair Tindall’s tell-all memoir of life as a freelance musician in 1980’s New York City, will be made into a 10-episode series for Amazon Studios, Variety reported on Tuesday,” writes Brian Wise at WQXR’s blog on Tuesday (3/11). “ ‘Mozart’ is one of four pilots that Amazon Studios has green-lighted, a process that is based partly on viewer feedback. Amazon released a pilot episode of the show last month…. Created by the heavy-hitting team of Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers, the series has a cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters and Lola Kirke as a young, impressionable oboist who comes to New York in search of a job in the symphony…. ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ is loosely based on Tindall’s 2005 memoir, subtitled ‘Sex, Drugs And Classical Music.’ … Reviews of the Amazon pilot have been mixed, if generally favorable.… The Los Angeles Times noted that the conductor character Rodrigo is an obvious parody of Gustavo Dudamel. The 30-minute pilot, released by the online retailer’s original video programming division, also features a cameo by Joshua Bell playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Writing on Facebook on Wednesday, Tindall praised co-writer Schwartzman, and added succinctly, ‘Omgomgomg.’ ”
Posted March 12, 2014
