While our nation continues to argue about gun control, Mark David Chapman, the man who shot ex-Beatle John Lennon, was just turned down for parole again at the end of August. It’s hard to believe that the tragedy happened almost 35 years ago when it still feels fresh to me and so many others. It’s odd to think that those born post-1980 may not even know what happened.

No matter what age you are, I bet you can’t name any of the people who tried to save Lennon’s life that night in New York City’s Roosevelt Hospital. My hunch is you don’t remember any of the doctors’ names or the nurses, police officers or the man who broke the story, but you recognize the name of the killer.

As gun violence runs rampant in our society, the media bombards us with the names of the gunmen over and over and over. Now, Jeremy Profe, writer and director of “The Lennon Report,” a new movie about the unsung heroes, wants to start a trend that celebrates rescue teams instead of making murderers famous.

It was a thrill to interview Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and director Hossein Amini about their film, “The Two Faces of January.” Stay tuned for a handful of articles on that! Here are video excerpts from the interviews.

I’ve also met with the great Terry Gilliam and his sidekick Lucas Hedges, the young actor in Gilliam’s movie, “The Zero Theorem.” Hedges also plays Jeremy Renner’s son in the fantastic thriller, “Kill the Messenger.” Here’s my video from that get together.
Today I’ll be interviewing the writer-director John Ridley! Can I get a woo hoo?! He’s the Academy Award-winner for “12 Years a Slave.” Wow. He is promoting his film about Jimi Hendrix, my childhood idol. The movie is called, “Jimi: All is By My Side.”

The post It’s Been an Exciting Month of Celebrity Interviews and Movies about Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and More appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.