Entertainment

The life story of celebrated comedian, actor, author, musician and playwright Steve Martin gets the documentary treatment in the new Apple TV+ doc Steve! (martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces, out Friday, March 29. It’s from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, who talked to ABC Audio about why he wanted to profile the living legend.

“He’s somebody who does things that can be really silly and stupid or really smart,” Neville explains. “And I kind of love the fact that he does high culture and low culture and kind of can do it all.”

One thing Neville didn’t ever figure on Martin doing was agreeing to make a documentary about himself, since “Steve had turned down the idea of doing a documentary for years and years and years.”

But, says Neville, “I think maybe because of COVID and maybe because he’s happier now, word got out that he maybe would be willing to talk to a documentary filmmaker. And so I went to his house and we had lunch, and we talked about kids and art and New York and, and at the end of it, he was like, OK.”

Whether you know Martin from his standup or movies like The Jerk or Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Neville believes you’ll find the doc relatable, noting, “I feel like a lot of the film isn’t about the celebrity stuff, it’s just about the human stuff.”

“How to figure out your creative voice and how does it connect with the culture and what you’re trying to do, and how to stick to your guns about your originality. And then the emotional questions of like, you know, does success bring happiness? And how do you actually work through your issues with your parents?” he explains.

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Keanu Reeves knows his way around a martial arts mat, what with his extensive training for The Matrix and John Wick franchises, and now he’s about to pay tribute to a groundbreaker within the combat sports.

Deadline reports Reeves and Oscar-winning director Fisher Stevens will co-produce a documentary on Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, who is credited with introducing mixed martial arts to the world. 

Now 71, Urquidez was a world champion karate and kickboxing legend who transitioned to training actors and coordinating fight scenes for movies. 

Incidentally, John Cusack was one of his students, and Urquidez takes him on in a famous scene in the actor’s 1997’s hit Grosse Pointe Blank. But Urquidez’s client list reads like a Hollywood’s who’s who: Everyone from Jackie Chan to the late Patrick Swayze to Michelle Pfeiffer trained with him over his long career. 

Emmy-nominated sports documentary editor and filmmaker Jennifer Tiexiera is directing the documentary. She tells the trade, “Benny’s fighting career was born out of his struggles with identity, poverty, and race, but he didn’t let those things define him. The result is a story about how struggle and sacrifice evolved into one about love, spirituality and deeper meaning.”

Keanu recently appeared in and produced another documentary, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story, which is streaming on Hulu.

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