Waits, Gilliam Join Voice Cast Of Rosto's Monster Of Nix
Press Release from Studio Rosto A.D
AMSTERDAM – April 05, 2011 - Musician/actor Tom Waits and director Terry Gilliam are the singular names to join the voice cast of The Monster of Nix, the latest film by Dutch artist/filmmaker Rosto. The highly anticipated dark fairy tale is in official selection at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, the world's leading festival for animated films.
The Monster of Nix is a 30-minute long animated musical which tells the story of Willy, a troubled boy who fights the destructive force of an all-devouring monster in the village of Nix. The existentialist fairy tale is as compelling and visually overwhelming as Rosto’s previous films, but this time it’s suitable for kids from 10 to 100.
Tom Waits
Tom Waits gave his voice to one of the main characters, Virgil, a terrifying giant pitch-black swallow. “Tom Waits was always the main inspiration for the dark and theatrical appearance of Virgil,” Rosto explains. “But I had never expected to actually have the privilege to work with Tom. The results are gobsmacking..." The eclectic American artist gained a worldwide following with his raspy vocals and ramshackle, cinematic songs on world-famous albums such as Rain Dogs and The Black Rider. The theatrical swagger of his live performances led to a parallel career as a film actor. Tom Waits has appeared in about 25 films, and is also noted as a composer of film music.
Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam plays the ranger, who locks himself up in terror in his forest cabin. Rosto: “I asked Gilliam because I thought his voice was made for this role. He felt rather uncomfortable about the singing. And that’s exactly how I wanted this character to sound: scared and insecure. The poor bastard suffered but I got exactly what I wanted."
Terry Gilliam was a founding member of Monty Python, creating the animations for the legendary comedy troupe. Gilliam co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and went on to become one of the most celebrated directors of our age, making such classics as Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. He is famous for a unique visual style, dark humour and surreal story lines. Gilliam is also known as a screenwriter and producer, and has played cameo roles in several films. This is the first time Gilliam has lent his voice to a film since his own animations for Monty Python.
Animated Musical
Music has always been an important ingredient in Rosto’s films. However, The Monster of Nix is truly driven by music. "It is ironic because I hate musicals,” says Rosto, who composed all of the music himself, “but somehow I ended up making one. Also, to my amazement, we recorded the film score with a world famous orchestra and some genuine musical heroes.”
Musical contributors to the film score are the Dutch Metropole Orkest, American eyeball art rockers The Residents and rising French indie band The Dø.
The Monster of Nix
The Monster of Nix is the most ambitious film production by Rosto to date. Development of the international co-production has taken more than five years. Main producer Studio Rosto A.D and co-producers Autour de Minuit (France) and CinéTé (Belgium) made the film in association with French broadcaster Canal+ and the Dutch broadcaster AVRO.
www.monsterofnix.com (check out the teaser)
ABOUT ROSTO/STUDIO ROSTO A.D
Director/artist Rosto, and his Studio Rosto A.D, are well known for music videos, television work and independent short films. The short (the rise and fall of the legendary) Anglobilly Feverson had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, followed by an impressive string of prestigious international festivals and worldwide recognition of Rosto’s work. The next short film Jona/Tomberry, winner of the Grand Prix Canal+ at the Cannes Film Festival 2005, concluded the trilogy of Mind My Gap films. Mind My Gap is Rosto A.D’s mixed media project that started with an online graphic novel (still running on www.rostoAD.com), and continued with music and print as well as films. Rosto is currently working on several spin-offs from the Mind My Gap universe, like The Monster of Nix and the music project Thee Wreckers.
ABOUT AUTOUR DE MINUIT
AMSTERDAM – April 05, 2011 - Musician/actor Tom Waits and director Terry Gilliam are the singular names to join the voice cast of The Monster of Nix, the latest film by Dutch artist/filmmaker Rosto. The highly anticipated dark fairy tale is in official selection at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, the world's leading festival for animated films.
The Monster of Nix is a 30-minute long animated musical which tells the story of Willy, a troubled boy who fights the destructive force of an all-devouring monster in the village of Nix. The existentialist fairy tale is as compelling and visually overwhelming as Rosto’s previous films, but this time it’s suitable for kids from 10 to 100.
Tom Waits
Tom Waits gave his voice to one of the main characters, Virgil, a terrifying giant pitch-black swallow. “Tom Waits was always the main inspiration for the dark and theatrical appearance of Virgil,” Rosto explains. “But I had never expected to actually have the privilege to work with Tom. The results are gobsmacking..." The eclectic American artist gained a worldwide following with his raspy vocals and ramshackle, cinematic songs on world-famous albums such as Rain Dogs and The Black Rider. The theatrical swagger of his live performances led to a parallel career as a film actor. Tom Waits has appeared in about 25 films, and is also noted as a composer of film music.
Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam plays the ranger, who locks himself up in terror in his forest cabin. Rosto: “I asked Gilliam because I thought his voice was made for this role. He felt rather uncomfortable about the singing. And that’s exactly how I wanted this character to sound: scared and insecure. The poor bastard suffered but I got exactly what I wanted."
Terry Gilliam was a founding member of Monty Python, creating the animations for the legendary comedy troupe. Gilliam co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and went on to become one of the most celebrated directors of our age, making such classics as Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. He is famous for a unique visual style, dark humour and surreal story lines. Gilliam is also known as a screenwriter and producer, and has played cameo roles in several films. This is the first time Gilliam has lent his voice to a film since his own animations for Monty Python.
Animated Musical
Music has always been an important ingredient in Rosto’s films. However, The Monster of Nix is truly driven by music. "It is ironic because I hate musicals,” says Rosto, who composed all of the music himself, “but somehow I ended up making one. Also, to my amazement, we recorded the film score with a world famous orchestra and some genuine musical heroes.”
Musical contributors to the film score are the Dutch Metropole Orkest, American eyeball art rockers The Residents and rising French indie band The Dø.
The Monster of Nix
The Monster of Nix is the most ambitious film production by Rosto to date. Development of the international co-production has taken more than five years. Main producer Studio Rosto A.D and co-producers Autour de Minuit (France) and CinéTé (Belgium) made the film in association with French broadcaster Canal+ and the Dutch broadcaster AVRO.
www.monsterofnix.com (check out the teaser)
ABOUT ROSTO/STUDIO ROSTO A.D
Director/artist Rosto, and his Studio Rosto A.D, are well known for music videos, television work and independent short films. The short (the rise and fall of the legendary) Anglobilly Feverson had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, followed by an impressive string of prestigious international festivals and worldwide recognition of Rosto’s work. The next short film Jona/Tomberry, winner of the Grand Prix Canal+ at the Cannes Film Festival 2005, concluded the trilogy of Mind My Gap films. Mind My Gap is Rosto A.D’s mixed media project that started with an online graphic novel (still running on www.rostoAD.com), and continued with music and print as well as films. Rosto is currently working on several spin-offs from the Mind My Gap universe, like The Monster of Nix and the music project Thee Wreckers.
ABOUT AUTOUR DE MINUIT
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I'm here for the same reason you are. I was married to the same woman for 27 years, and not once did she ask me what I do for a living. I know she's a chippy..I found matchbooks in her purse from every other bar in town, her mother's a transvestite, her father's a fuller brush man, but he's bald as a doorknob...I was afraid to drive..I knocked up this fifteen hundred pound mexican woman who didn't have a green card, wound up working at the Amerol city chamber of commerce, well, minimum wage and sh##, finally I told them you can take this job, for cryin' out loud, jumped in a taxi and told him top take me to east St. Louis; I'll pay whatever's on the meter. That's when I hooked up with this pharmacist, yeah, this crazy pharmacist, let me sweep up in the apothecary for hot meals and neosynephrine while I studied motel management at night. I finally got ready for the exam, and Jimmy The Lock broke in one night and stole some Lucky Tiger, a half pint of Bay Rum, and some Field and stream magazines...and I got a cross town bus. I told the driver let me off at the nearest bar, and whaddaya know..a girl I hadn't seen in fifteen years recognized me after a shave and told me she thought we could make beautiful music together. I said, baby, "I got a tin ear", and she said, "I got a glass eye and a bum leg", so we went up to her place where I found she was running guns to Africa and selling Avon products without a license, so I borrowed her car to go the the beach to meet new friends. Well, I got pulled over in Burmuda for driving without sunglasses, and harassed and intimidated until we started talking about Pete Kelly's Blues, and I said I know a guy named Web, and finally drove out of there with a new lease on life, a manual on how to avoid child molesting, and ten dollars in my pocket, which I spent on a 1956 recording of the Grand Prix at Sebring and an out of print Cozy Cole album that turned out to be a Rudy Ray Moore record. Well, I've been trying to get my hands on that for years, so I turned to myself and said, "Hey Earl, you gonna be a bum all your live? I said, "You talking to me?", well Earl used to be one of my aliases at the time...maybe you heard of me...Earl Shive, well, to make a long story short, I through in with these italian guys in Montebello. They talked me into opening a used food restaurant. Well, you got used clothes, used cars, why not used food...for less fortunate people who don't get out very often. Anyway, opening night, this one armed bass player goes beserk right in front of the place...you know searchlights, cops, they said it was a front for a prosthetic supermarket and a pet hospital, so they sentenced me to two years in prison, but they suspended the sentence and made me listen to a band called Mondray for six months. No parole.When I got out, I swore I was going straight. I got the first flight to Vegas to study to be a typing teacher...my analyst said it was the healthiest thing he ever heard of..In six months, I was living on chicken and wine...I'm not talkin' bull**** here...Every night I hit the after hours places with my beat up underwood typewriter, (you only heard about these places in Tally's corner, mind you) well, there I was with shades on hanging out at the bar...when this trombone player named Marcel Toupee asked me if I wanted to sit in..and well, he who hesitates is lost, so i got up on the bandstand, they hit me with a spotlight, kicked in a blues in B flat, and I just typed...typed like a crazy man. All that woodshedding, well you know...finally I got my own group, we played six nights a week and three shows on weekends, finally I couldn't pay the band, they left me flat..I was in Monty Wards trying to barter for some band uniforms, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of them since. So I got out of the racket. Went back to my first wife, told her there'd be no more of those bondage scenes, she slapped me with 1500 dollar bill, for some braces and s***. So I got me a job working at Yonker's racetrack. One day during the daily double, I remembered Hitler's phone number...666, I put all my money on 666, won twelve to one, paid 1268 bucks, drove all night to New Orleans to the girl of my dreams, woke her up, played her a long version of Harlem Nocturne on my trumpet, she called the paramedics, and they said "Hey buddy, take a long walk off a short peer". Well, I ain't no fool, I got me three hots and flop and the first thing smokin' outta town, if you know what I mean...and baby, I saw you in 1967. 1967, driving a Lincoln continental, smokin a Lucky Strike, going 75 miles an hour, on route 66, with a blue scarf around your neck, wearing Chanel #5, with Rosemary Clooney right there on the radio, and I know you didn't see me. But I saw you...and I said to myself, I gotta get next to that girl. So whaddya say you slide over a stool and let's get aquainted?
T.W. (a very rare rap from many many years ago)
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