On Thursday, July 19th Jean Seberg's hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa was devastated by a F4 tornado which destroyed and damaged its Main Street business district, homes, historic buildings, many old trees and vehicles. Fortunately, there was no loss of life and few injuries.
Among the damaged historic buildings were the town's courthouse and the Orpheum Theater Center where Jean watched movies as a teen, and a number of her own films, including her first, Saint Joan, played to packed audiences.
We the producers of Movie Star: the Secret Lives of Jean Seberg decided to create a visual tribute to Marshalltown, Iowa using footage gathered downtown in 2012 for the documentary, and accoustic guitar music by Marshalltown native Mark Adams of Amy & Adams. The song "Going Home" was the perfect fit for the video piece. Amy & Adams' music is featured in Movie Star.
We wish the residents of Marshalltown all the very best as you rebuild your beautiful city.
Producers Kelly & Tammy Rundle and Garry McGee Fourth Wall Film & McMarr, LTD
#marshalltownstrong
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Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg producers Garry McGee, Tammy Rundle and Kelly Rundle in front of the Orpheum Theater Center in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Photo from the Jean Seberg Collection, the IVCCD Orpheum Theater Center, Marshalltown, Iowa (All rights reserved.)
This historic image was taken in 1956 in downtown Marshalltown, Iowa during the big parade that welcomed a young Jean Seberg home to celebrate being selected from 18,000 hopefuls and cast in Otto Preminger's SAINT JOAN.
Yesterday, July 19, 2018, a massive tornado devastated the town, residences, buildings, cars, the charming Main Street businesses, and the historic Orpheum Theater Center--where Seberg's SAINT JOAN screened in 1957. It is currently home to the Jean Seberg Festival of the Arts, and the Orpheum's Seberg Collection.
Twenty seven tornadoes ripped through Iowa Thursday leaving destruction in several towns, including Bondurant and Pella. A number of people were injured, but thankfully no deaths have been reported.
Four emergency alerts pinged through on cell phones. Sirens rang through downtown twice. At first, it seemed like nothing. Then it hit.
Devastating.
In a word, that is how small businesses and their owners, residents and anyone who witnessed the tornado that struck Marshalltown Thursday afternoon describe it.
As it happened
Local resident David Powers said he witnessed the destructive tornado on Church Street as it turned from black to an unnerving deep purple. At that point, he sought immediate shelter.
Places like the Marshalltown Public Library, the Animal Rescue League, the YMCA-YWCA and other local organizations began harboring passersbys and the patrons already at the facilities.
Sheila Just, of Kingdom Trucking, had no choice but to take cover in the bed of her semi with her dogs in the truck with her. Bricks, glass and other debris fell around her, even cracking the windows of her truck. But somehow, she made it out alive — she credits the work of a higher power.
Josh Gummert, an employee at Sub City, took the four customers in the restaurant down to basement as they heard the sirens going off. They heard loud cracking while they were in shelter. Now, they believe the noise was the glass shattering on the store front windows.
“We were looking toward the (Marshall County) Courthouse and it was dark, and all the sudden it swooped up … when we looked over between the trees, we could see the funnel — it was moving really quick,” said resident Selena Weitzell.
The steeple on the Marshall County Courthouse was gone. Bricks, glass, branches, flanks of wood and random debris scattered the streets. Residents took in the damage throughout town in the post-storm heat and humidity, moving branches and pieces of houses off their lawn and out of the street.
Parked cars were slightly damaged or totaled with entire trees on top of them. Some were in entirely different spots than they were originally parked. As people descended on the devastation, one woman shouted across the parking lot, “at least I still got a driver’s window.”
Video footage of the tornado captured by Mark Varnum (posted on Youtube 7/19/2018). He noted where he was located when he filmed: "Northwest from 18th st. and HWY 30. Funnel touched down just west of the Soldier's home and went down Main St., Marshalltown, Iowa.
Downtown hit hard
In the aftermath it appeared that Main Street was hit especially hard, as if the tornado had a designated plan to head that route. Typical to other storms that have hit Marshalltown in recent years, the tornado seemed to pick up strength as it traveled west to east, but prominent evidence of the event can be seen largely throughout the northeast and northwest quadrants of Marshalltown.
Photo by Nancy Adams (curator of the Jean Seberg Colllection) - Orpheum Theater Center tornado damage.
CNN reported that ten people suffered injuries after a tornado struck the town of 27,000 people (located about an hour northeast of Des Moines). None of the patients are in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Laura Rainey said.
Read the CNN coverage and view tornado video HERE.
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Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg producers Garry McGee, Tammy Rundle and Kelly Rundle in front of the Orpheum Theater Center in Marshalltown, Iowa.
It was announced on Deadline.com today that actor Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers, Hacksaw Ridge, Couples Retreat) has joined the cast of the new political thrillerAgainst All Enemies, directed by director Benedict Andrews (Una) andstarring Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper, On the Road, Twilight) as Jean Seberg. Vaughn will play Carl Kowalski, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation of Seberg involvement with supporting the Black Power movement. Seberg was considered the darling of the French New Wave after starring in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.
Jean Seberg and Kristen Stewart (Ecran Noir).
Deadline.com reports: Fred Berger (La La Land) and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones of Automatik are producing alongside Kate Garwood and Stephen Hopkins. Phreaker Films, led by Alan Ritchson and Marina Acton, has come on board to produce and finance. Bradley Pilz of Bradley Pilz Productions is also producing. Sales kick off in Cannes this week via Memento Films International. UTA is repping U.S. rights. The film is set to begin filming in Los Angeles in June.
*The producers of Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg are not affiliated with Against All Enemies, nor is this project based on Garry McGee's book Jean Seberg: Breathless or Neutralized: the FBI vs Jean Seberg by Jean Russell Larson and Garry McGee.
The award-winning documentary Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg by Emmy-nominated documentary film writer Garry McGee, McMarr LTD (author of Jean Seberg: Breathless) and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmakers Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films) will be released internationally on DVD near Christmas 2018.
Join the journey! To add your name to the film credits (before August 1, 2018) and make a tax-deductible contribution of $100 or more to Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg, contact us at fourthwallfilms@aol.com for details!
Jean Seberg in the French New Wave film "Breathless".
As the award-winning Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg documentary undergoes final adjustments, we turn our attention to early preparations for the DVD bonus features, closed captioning and a French translation of the film.
Though Jean was an American actress, she appeared in 34 films in Hollywood and in Europe, and lived half of her life in France. She is considered an adopted daughter of France and is honored and remembered there even today.
Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (Star de Cinéma: les vies secrètes de Jean Seberg) DVD will have the option of being viewed with French subtitles.
We continue our fundraising efforts to cover post-production expenses on Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. Ahhhh to have a Hollywood budget for our French/Hollywood story! What would that be like? Funding raised during this final phase will go toward E&O insurance and licensing fees.
The DVD is slated for release in December of this year!
If you or someone you know would like to make atax-deductible contribution of $100 or more to the film project before it goes to DVD, contact us at fourthwallfilms@aol.com for details!
We cannot thank each of you enough for your generous and kind support of Movie Star. We are very excited to see the project finally coming to a close. We could not do it without you!
Breathless, the groundbreaking film that was an instant classic when first released in 1960 ushered in the French New Wave style of filmmaking and made stars of Jean-Paul Belmondo and director Jean-Luc Godard. Jean Seberg, who was living in France with her then-husband Francois Moreuil (also featured in Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg) was convinced by him to be in Breathless.
The financial backers also wanted a name to be in the film to help generate ticket sales and Seberg filled the ticket. It's also the first film in which audiences saw a natural Seberg--Godard allowed her much freedom in the interpretation of the character she played. And her instincts come through for the first time on film.
"We did a lot of improvising," Jean later recalled. "And I believe Belmondo and I often thought we were creating more than we really were. [But] Godard was very much in control of it all."
"Jean really enjoyed making Breathless, and much of it was ad-libbed. It showed what Jean could do when left to her own devices," said Carol Hollingsworth, Jean's high school theater drama coach and friend.
"The company was aware that Movie Star was in post-production and asked if we could create a featurette about Jean for inclusion on the DVD," said producer Kelly Rundle. "It was great fun to do and we are pleased to have it included on this special DVD marking the 50th anniversary of Breathless' release.
The 50th Anniversary Breathless DVD can be purchased via Amazon.com.
Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg and Lee Marvin in Joshua Logan's Paint Your Wagon.
As producers Kelly and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films), and Garry McGee (McMarr, LTD) continue fundraising efforts for post-production editing on Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg, and work on the legal review of the documentary is underway, Jean Seberg continues to make news in 2018--the year that marks what would have been her 8oth birthday.
A new exhibit opens at the Baker Heritage Museum celebrating the 50th anniversary of Paint Your Wagon, the big-budget Western musical directed by Joshua Logan.
The Baker Heritage Museum located at 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR.
The 1968 film starring Jean Seberg, Lee Marvin, and Clint Eastwood, was filmed in Eastern Oregon, near Anthony Lakes and along East Eagle Creek in the Wallowa Mountains.
Paint Your Wagon won an Oscar for Best Musical Score in 1970 and received two Golden Globe nominations for 'Best Picture - Comedy or Musical', and 'Best Actor - Comedy or Musical'. Lee Marvin won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical.
The display will be featured in the museum's main gallery through the 2019 season.
You may have seen news items pop up announcing that Kristen Stewart has been cast as Jean Seberg in a movie that is in pre-production entitled Against All Enemies. It is described as a thriller and is produced by Automatik Entertainment.
Please note that the producers of Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Sebergare not affiliated with Against All Enemies, nor is that project based on Garry McGee's book Jean Seberg: Breathless or Neutralized: the FBI vs Jean Seberg by Jean Russell Larson and Garry McGee.
Fundraising for final post-production editing expenses on Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg continues. If you or someone you know would like to make a tax-deductible contribution of $100 or more to the film project before it goes to DVD (target release date is December 2018), contact us at fourthwallfilms@aol.com for details!
Actress Kristen Stewart. (Image By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0 Details HERE.)
Kristen Stewart is set to star in Against All Enemies, a thriller formerly titled Seberg, to be directed by Benedict Andrews (Una), The Hollywood Reporter printed.
Automatik Entertainment is producing, with Fred Berger (La La Land), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Kate Garwood and Stephen Hopkins sharing the producer credits. Read MORE.
Jean Seberg in Birds in Peru (1968).
Deadline reported "Seberg, an American actress who spent half her life in France, was a darling of the French New Wave. Because of her political and romantic involvement with civil rights activist Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), she was also a target of the FBI’s attempts to disrupt, discredit and expose the Black Power movement. Jack O’Connell plays the ambitious young FBI agent assigned to surveil her, only to find their fates dangerously interwoven." Read MORE.
Indiewire reports that Against All Enemies is coming together quickly and will be shopped around to potential distributors. Read MORE.
IMDB reports that the film project will go into production Spring 2018.
The award-winning documentary Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg by Emmy-nominated documentary film writer Garry McGee (author of Jean Seberg: Breathless) and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmakers Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films) will be released internationally on DVD near Christmas 2018.
Join the journey! To add your name to the credits and make a tax-deductible contribution of $100 or more to Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg before it goes to DVD, contact us at fourthwallfilms@aol.com for details!
The producers of Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg are not affiliated with Against All Enemies, nor is this project based on Garry McGee's book Jean Seberg: Breathless or Neutralized: the FBI vs Jean Seberg by Jean Russell Larson and Garry McGee.
By Conrad Bibens, Houston Chronicle February 2, 2018
A famous writer publishes one of his best novels, a life-affirming work about love and courage, then a short time later commits suicide.
Is it macabre to read it, and enjoy it?
No. "The Kites" is still a tribute to the joy and necessity of living, regardless of what its writing took out of Romain Gary. It's a 37-year-old book that's just now appearing in the United States, translated from the French by Miranda Richmond Mouillot.
If Dos Equis had been a French beer, Gary would have been a natural to play "the Most Interesting Man in the World." Born Jewish in Lithuania, he converted to Catholicism when he emigrated to France as a teenager in the 1930s. He twice won his adopted country's highest honor for literature (once under a nom de plume since the Prix Goncourt is supposed to be awarded only once to an author).
Gary was good friends with fellow writer Albert Camus and was highly respected by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and President Charles de Gaulle. Fluent in six languages, Gary served as a diplomat in several countries and was France's consul general in Los Angeles in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Along the way, he wrote much of the screenplay for the World War II movie epic "The Longest Day." His second wife was American actress Jean Seberg. When she had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary reportedly challenged him to a duel. Eastwood declined the challenge, a sensible reaction since Gary likely would have taken him. A real-life hero, Gary was a bombardier for a Free French squadron in the Royal Air Force during the second world war, winning many medals for bravery.
Filmmaker and biographer Garry McGee appears on "The Online Movie Show with Phil Hall" on Monday, November 6th at 1P (EST)/12P (CST) and 10A (WST) and recalls movie star Jean Seberg's life and career, from her unsteady overnight stardom in Otto Preminger's "Saint Joan" to her crowning glory in the French New Wave to the harassment from J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.
"The Online Movie Show" is produced at the Platinum Wolfe Studios and is hosted by film journalist Phil Hall. His weekly podcast celebrates the movies and the people that create them. Click HERE to listen in.
Phil Hall is the author of "The History of Independent Cinema," "The Greatest Bad Films of All Time" and "In Search of Lost Films." His cinema writing appeared in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Wired and the Library of Congress website, and he authors "The Bootleg Files" column on Cinema-Crazed.com.
Jean Seberg's grave in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France. (Courtesy/Copyright Michel Ambruster.)
Those of us who are fans, family, friends, believers of change for the better cannot let August 30th go by without remembering Jean Seberg.
The beautiful actress, activist and icon was last seen alive on August 30, 1979 and discovered in her Renault automobile several days later, not far from her Paris, France apartment.
This was a time in which there was no internet, no tweeting, no emails, no cable TV in every home. But her death spread throughout the world.
News in the U.S. was learned by television, radio and newspapers. The first reports of Jean's death were on radio in which at the top of every hour was a recap of breaking and recent news stories. The-then three networks all carried stories about Jean's death in their national evening news shows, and the following morning so did most every U.S. newspaper.
The French in particular were moved by the passing of their adopted daughter. They preempted regular broadcasting with a showing of Bonjour Tristesse to honor the beloved actress from Marshalltown, Iowa.
Although Jean hadn't made a major American theatrical film since the Academy Award-nominated blockbuster Airport (with Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset and Helen Hayes) ten years earlier, and her last American film was for ABC-Television (Mousey with Kirk Douglas) in 1974, she was still a name.
More news reports followed in the next week as more revelations about her life and death came to light, each one more lengthy than the previous.
It had been 23 years prior in which Marshalltown, Iowa's Jean Seberg became a star overnight when she was chosen to play Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan. The news media made her a known name. And it was the news media that helped bring her downfall in 1970.
With the amount of coverage upon Jean's death, did those in the news media feel they had done her wrong? Jim Bellows of the Los Angeles Times certainly felt so. In his many years as editor and the countless stories he was involved with, his biggest regret was the newspaper's role in spreading gossip about Jean without verifying its accuracy.
Although she has not been fully exonerated and misinformation continues to be spread about her in both traditional and new media, the truth is out there if one wishes to learn it. Fourth Wall Films and McMarr, LTD's award-winning Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg will be released on DVD later in 2017, with broadcasts following in 2018.
The 2016 Jean Seberg Festival of the Arts. The festival is an annual event celebrated this year November 3-5, 2017.
The annual Jean Seberg Festival of the Arts invites U.S. and international fans to come to Jean's hometown of Marshalltown to celebrate Iowa's daughter and movie star November 3-5th, 2017. The festival features Seberg-inspired art, film, theater, a massive collection of Jean Seberg photographs and memorabilia, symposiums, tours of her town and sites connected to her life growing up in Marshalltown. Visit Jean Seberg at the O! for more details.
