Trippy, dude. The first poster for Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock,” has arrived. The trailer was far too goofy for our liking — though allegedly it was tailored for the “Important Things with Demetri Martin” Comedy Central show where it debuted (Martin stars) — but the poster is appropriately tie-dyed, psychedelic and much like the acid-rock concert posters of yore.
Penned by longtime Ang Lee writer/producer James Schamus (“Brokeback Mountain”, “The Ice Storm” and the CEO of Focus Features) and based on the autobiography “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life” by Elliot Tiber, the film stars Demetri Martin as a young man (Tiber) working at his parents’ motel in the Catskills who inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969.
As Schamus told Rolling Stone, he “gets waylaid by an acid trip and a three-way.”
Don’t expect a lot of cliche ’60s rock either according to Schamus [ed. thank god!]. “Ang and I are score-oriented,” he said . “It’s in the early stages, but I can tell you it’s not going to the be the usual collection of obvious needle drops. It will be of the time, and of the spirit of the time. It’s whatever works dramatically.”
The ensemble cast features Martin as Tiber, along with Paul Dano, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Eugene Levy, Liev Schreiber, and Imelda Staunton, among others.
“Taking Woodstock” is set for an August 14 date in limited release.