Some of our recent press can be seen online at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/10/mission-to-lars-review-ulrich

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/4360863/How-Metallica-helped-me-to-understand-the-disabled-brother.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/02/lars-ulrich-metallica-mission-documentary-feature

http://www.holymoly.com/film-dvd/reviews/mission-lars-if-you-see-one-film-about-autistic-man-trying-meet-metallica63348

new dates new dates new dates

mission to lars, tour dates

Mission to Lars will be premiered at Hackney Picturehouse on June 6^th 2021 at 9 p.m. There will be a Q&A with its directors chaired by Richard Bacon after the screening.

The film tours Picturehouse theatres nationwide throughout June and July.

You can watch the new trailer here: http://vimeo.com/42276975 or visit the website here: www.missiontolars.com

Random dates everywhere from Inverness to Devizes are being added all the time, so ask your local independent cinema, you never know, we may be on there.

Directed by James Moore & William Spicer this is a film that looks beyond disability, and uncovers the soul of a very cool guy. Mike Lindsay from Tunng scores, and the soundtrack includes Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart and Blur.

Full list of theatres here:

Wednesday 6th June (PREMIERE) Hackney Picturehouse, London (+ Q&A with directors & Richard Bacon)
showing at 21.00 hrs.

Tickets £ 10.00
Booking 0871 902 5734
Hackney@picturehouse.co.uk
 Hackney Picturehouse
270 Mare Street
London E8 1HE


Thursday 7th June Lexi Cinema, Kensal Rise, London with Q&A
showing at: 18.30

Tickets £ 10.50
Booking:  0871 704 2069

info@thelexicinema.co.uk

194b Chamberlyne Rd

Kensal Rise

London NW10 3JU

Friday 8th June Ritzy , Brixton, London (one night only with Q&A with directors)
Showing at 20.40 hrs. 

Tickets £12.10
Bookings 0871 902 5739
ritzy@picturehouses.co.uk
 Ritzy Picturehouse
Brixton Oval
coldharbour lane
London SW2 1JG


Friday 8th June Gate Cinema, Notting Hill, London
showing at:

Tickets: £10.50

Bookings: 0871 902 5731

Gate@picturehouses.co.uk

Gate Picturehouse

87 Notting Hill Gate

London    W11 3JZ

Wednesday 13th June Aberdeen plus Q&A
Showing at: 18.30hrs

Tickets:  £8.50

Bookings 0871 902 5721

Belmont@picturehouses.co.uk

 The Belmont Picturehouse
49 Belmont St
Aberdeen
AB10 1JS

  
Thursday 14th June Grosvenor Cinema, Glasgow plus Q&A
Showing at 20.40 hrs. 
Tickets £8.00
Bookings 0141 339 8444

Glasgow@picturehouses.co.uk
Grosvenor Cinema
Ashton Lane
Hillhead
Glasgow

Friday 15th – Thursday 21st June Ritzy, Brixton          
Showing at 20.40 hrs.
Tickets £12.10
Bookings 0871 902 5739
ritzy@picturehouses.co.uk
Ritzy Picturehouse
Brixton Oval
coldharbour lane
London SW2 1JG

Saturday 16th June Bath  Plus Q&A
Showing at 15.30hrs. 
Tickets £8.00
Bookings 0871 902 5735

Bath@picturehouses.co.uk

 Little Theatre Co
St Michaels Place
Bath BA1 1SF

Sunday17th June Exeter Plus Q&A
Showing at 20.00 hrs.
Tickets £8.50
Bookings 0871 902 5730
Exeter@picturehouses.co.uk
Exeter Picturehouse
51 Bartholomew St West
Exeter
EX4 3AJ

 
Monday 18th June Southampton Plus Q&A
Showing at 18.30hrs. 
Tickets £7.50
Bookings 0871 902 5377

harbourlights@picturehouses.co.uk
Harbour Lights Picturehouse
Ocean Village
Southampton
SO14 3TL


Thursday 21st June Greenwich Picturehouse Plus Q&A
Showing at 20.40hrs.
Tickets £9.50
Bookings 0871 902 5732

Greenwich@picturehouses.co.uk
Greenwich Picturehouse
180 Greenwich High Rd
Greenwich
London SE10 8NN


Friday 22nd – Thursday 28th June FACT, Liverpool Plus Q&A
Showing at: 18.15hrs
Tickets:  £8.50
Bookings 0871 902 5737

Liverpool@picturehouse.co.uk
 Picture House at FACT
88 Wood Street
Liverpool
L1 4DD

Friday 22nd – Thursday 28th June Stratford East Picturehouse
Showing at: Fri 22^nd &Sun 24^th – 2p.m; Sat 23/Tue 26/Wed 27 – 6.30 p.m; Thur 28 – 8.30 p.m.
Tickets:  £10.50
Bookings 0871 902 5740

Stratfordeast@picturehouses.co.uk

Stratford Picturehouse, East London

Salway Road

London E15 1BX

Saturday 23^rd June Open City Docs Fest
Showing at: 15.45
Tickets:  £5.00
Bookings:

http://www.opencitydocsfest.com/index.php?id=127

Darwin Theatre

UCL

Torrington Place

London WC1 E6

Sunday 24th June Cambridge
Showing at:  13.30
Tickets: £7.50
Bookings: 0871 902 5720
Cambridge@picturehouses.co.uk
Arts Picturehouse
38-39 St Andrews Street
Cambridge
CB2 3AR

Monday 25th June Tyneside Newcastle
Showing at: 18.10hrs

Tickets: £6.95/8.00

Bookings: 0845 217 9909

box.office@tynesidecinema.co.uk

Tyneside Cinema
10 Pilgrim Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
NE1 6QG

Thursday 5th July Cameo, Edinburgh Plus Q&A
Showing at: 18.15 hrs
Tickets: £7.00
Bookings: 0871 902 5723
Cameo@picturehouses.co.uk
38 Home St
Edinburgh
EH3 9LZ

6th July Oxford Plus Q&A
 Showing: 18.30hrs
Tickets: £8.70
Bookings 0871 902 5736
Phoenix@picturehouses.co.uk
Phoenix Picturehouse
57 Walton Street
Oxford
OX2 6AE

9th July York Plus Q&A
 Showing: 18.30
Tickets: £8.20
bookings: 0871 902 5726
cityscreenyork@picturehouses.co.uk
City Screen Picturehouse
13-17 Coney Street
York
YO1 9QL

11th July Norwich Plus Q&A
 Showing: 18.30
Tickets: £8.50
bookings: 0871 902 5724
cinemacity@picturehouses.co.uk
Cinema City
St Andrews St
Norwich
NR2 4AD

12th July Brighton (+ live music from Heavy Load)
 Showing: 21.00
Tickets: £8.50
bookings: 0871 902 5728
Dukeofyork@picturehouses.co.uk
Duke of York
Preston Circus
Brighton
BN1 4NA

Links:

Premier: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/film/Premiere_Mission_To_Lars/

Tour: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/film/Mission_To_Lars/

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/42276975.

mission to lars tour dates and trailer

MISSION TO LARS TOUR of Picturehouse Cinemas

We are doing some talking often with interesting people at every one of these dates, although only once at the long run screens - Ritzy, Gate, Stratford and Liverpool - because honestly, we really aren't that interesting. 


If you want to meet Tom, he has confirmed only the premiere in Hackney on 6 June and at his home city of Exeter on 17 June. 


We've seen him sign autographs before, maybe, just maybe, he might again... Nah, not confirming anything. If you think rock stars are unpredictable, you should meet our fragile X superstar brother Tom (which you might, then again you might not, and so on)

Book through your local Picturehouse, or at http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/

Like a Hollywood motion picture we also have a wicked trailer

6th June Wed Hackney (premiere, with Q&A afterwards moderated by TeeVee's Richard Bacon)

7th June Thu Lexi Kensal Rise (not a Picturehouse: http://thelexicinema.co.uk/)

8th June Fri Ritzy Brixton (one off with Q&A)

8th June Fri-Thu (plays for one week) Gate Cinema

13th June Wed Aberdeen

14th June Thu Grosvenor Glasgow

15th June Fri-Thu (plays for one week) Ritzy Brixton

16th June Sat Bath

17th June Sun Exeter

18th June Mon Southampton

21st June Thu Greenwich Picturehouse

22nd June Fri-Thu (plays for one week) FACT, Liverpool
22nd June Fri-Thu (plays for one week)  Stratford

24th June Sun, Cambridge TO BE CONFIRMED

25th June Mon Tyneside Newcastle

5th July Thu Cameo Edinburgh

6^th July Fri Oxford

9th July Mon York

11th July Wed Norwich

12th July Thu Brighton (+ live music from Heavy Load)


Dates to be confirmed, Leeds and Inverness

CLICK ME

Click this http://vimeo.com/38366274 to see the first minutes of Mission to Lars

We have a website now www.missiontolars.com

We have a date for the premier, Wednesday 6th June 2012 and tickets will be for sale on Picturehouse website soon: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/

Our Facebook LIKErs are growing: FACEBOOK

And reviewers, journalists and others are starting to see and like the film.

Moving onwards and upwards while occasionally tripping over our own shoelaces

LOVE M2L

MISSION to LARS, a press release.

This dropped into my email inbox. A press release about my own film of mine. And Tom, who calls it, 'My film'. Nice.

‘ MISSION TO LARS’ documentary gets cinema release in June.

‘Mission to Lars’ is an uplifting documentary feature film about Tom Spicer, a learning disabled man who, with his siblings help, goes on a transatlantic quest to find his much obsessed over hero, Lars Ulrich of Metallica.

Tom has Fragile X Syndrome, a sort of autism. All he's ever wanted is to meet Lars. After 20 years and 10,000 times of asking his journalist sister, Kate, when he was going to meet Lars, she finally cracked. This is a film that looks beyond disability, and uncovers the soul of a very cool guy.

Kate and filmmaker brother, William, break Tom out of his care home in Exmouth, and hit the road, from Bristol , to Heathrow, to LA, to Las Vegas and beyond. ‘Mission to Lars’ was made by William Spicer and James Moore. Both were veterans of music and brand promos, but complete movie novices.  “We had this fantasy of hitting the road with Tom and recreating some of the magic of our teenage years cruising around in £100 cars, eating Burger King and listening to heavy metal on the tape deck,” says Kate. “We thought it would be fun, bonding. We wanted to do something good for our brother. We were also sick of him endlessly asking.” It doesn't take long before the hoped for dream becomes a nightmare as Tom’s disabilities, the dysfunctional family, and Metallica’s labyrinthine backstage world thwart the Mission at every turn.

At a fingernail destroying screening last summer (the night before Metallica headlined Sonisphere Festival), the Spicer family showed their film to Ulrich.  The Mission to Lars production team squirmed with anticipation: would he like it? Yes, he liked it.

‘ Mission to Lars’ is already garnering admiration, The Financial Times’ Antonia Quirke had this to say “I loved this film. More of a classic quest film than a documentary. It's so touching and open-hearted, and has so many magical moments. It feels really epic.”

The film has three goals: entertainment, awareness raising and fund raising. All profits go to Mencap, and the film has charity status. In raising money for the film, the producers also raised over £25,000 for Mencap. The film’s cinema release is being used as an outreach opportunity with talks and events following every screening. Many people, from colour graders, sound mixers, Bob Dylan, screening rooms and the production assistant have given their talent and/or time for free. Kasabian donated stuff for them to sell to raise money, Huey from Fun Loving Criminals put them in touch with some text book tour managers to try out their blagging skills on, although the scary looking dudes backstage at Metallica’s show turn out to be loving pussy cats.

‘Mission To Lars’ has a small theatrical release through Picturehouse cinemas in the UK in June, but profits will continue to be paid to Mencap for as long as the film has a life, DVD, intern ational sales, etc. Mencap have been closely involved in the making of the film. Their belief is that the film, in an entertaining and universally understood way, tells the story of the confusing family dynamics around learning disability, and portrays Tom as a complex and likeable character, and not as someone one sees first as learning disabled and everything else second.

Mike Lindsay from Tunng  scores, and the soundtrack includes Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart and Blur. 

The film is giving all profits to charity and everyone has donated time and music for free. 

MUSIC HAS A BIG HEART

‘ Mission to Lars’ goes on cinema release in June.

Watch a trailer here http://vimeo.com/38366274   
 www.missiontolars.com

For more information/screening dates  contact Kas Mercer on 0208 354 4111 or email kas@mercenarypublicity.com

homework

I'm trying to write a press release, aka, homework.

You'd think after 20 years of reading them I'd know how that's done. Must've not been paying attention at the back.

Our premier is in early June, a special charity preview screening is in early May. Then we take the film on the road, and at the end of July go to show it to a bunch of Metallica fans in California at Orien Fest.

Meanwhile, I have to write a press release/homework.

HOMEWORK ALERT

More soon. In the meantime, if you don't mind giving us a LIKE on our Facebook page, it'd be helpful.

HOMEWORK ALERT still flashing, noisy

Thanks.

HOMEWORK ALERT now so loud cannot breathe

must.do.homework...

Waiting waiting waiting

Soundmix - nearly complete; colour grade - done. Finished film by end of February. Will do a friends and family screening, for crew, investors and a few key supporters round Valentine's Day. Website should be active by then too. Apparently the tardiness is my fault, because I haven't written all our publicity and website material.

It's painful work, and watching myself on film is excruciating. If there are any profoundly altruistic film PRs out there...

Seen Tom a lot lately. He's been having some big adventures, like, taking the bus to Exmouth and disappearing for a day. He was registered as a missing person, and police were taking it very seriously, given that he is considered vulnerable.

He rang Mum on his mobile to say he was lost, then lost battery. He's only recently been allowed on the buses on his own and is meant to stick to only the buses with numbers he recognises. Pushing the limits, the day before he went not just to Exmouth on the bus, but on into Exeter.

Well done Tom. Then, this. Where had he gone, where did he get to. Mum said he sounded frightened. We all went into full on flap mode, my Mum couldn't stop crying. And then, around 8pm, he walked through the door at Bystock, his home, and asked where he's been he said, Plymouth, and went straight to his room.

that's plymouth bus station's graffiti there on the right

He'd got lost and found his way home. I wish I knew more, but extracting details from Tom isn't always that easy.

We've taglined Mission to Lars, "everyone deserves one big adventure".

Seems Tom's got an appetite for them.

Me and him are going to take the bus to Bickington next time I go to visit him. I asked him where he'd really like to go and he said, "Don't mind, somewhere far away from here."

Ahhh Mumbo. You are so excellent. I can't wait to get you up on a big screen and let people judge you, then think again. the label, 'learning disabled' takes so much away from what people imagine you are capable of.

x

No post for two months and then twice in one day. It's like buses this blog

Thought a couple of photos of Tom living large on his 40th birthday celebrations might provide warmen the cockles. I am especially proud of the boadyboarding...

It was hard work getting Tom in that wetsuit, took three strong men...

...but once he was in we were cooking on gas

walked through Newquay, rolling with my crew, lots of pisstaking

met Brendan, the instructor at Rob Barber's Body Boarding School

...caught some waves, man. no sweat

afterwards the lovely people at rob barber's gave tom a birthday cake

then we all went home to have 'posh dinner' and Tom made a short speech.

Afterwards he opened some birthday presents. His electric drumkit left him speechless

Happy 40th Birthday Bro, for you I really mean it when I say life begins n all that shit. You've climbed some big mountains in recent years, and I think you're feeling good about yourself...

Loutallica, Lousie Mensch, wet people, hard people, Tom's 40th birthday

Watched Metallica and Lou Reed play Later with Jools Holland last night. White Light/White Heat was a satisfying mash up of poetry, french pop music and perky heavy rock, and while the album might be about sad things, tortured artists and wotnot, I found that one song poificktly cheery. Not sure what the Metallers think though. It's not exactly Master of Puppets

I shuffled myself into a camera free corner and watched lots of familiar faces from Metallica's backstage world act really busy and important. I didn't have the balls to go and say hello, but they were all there. Lars' drum tech, the manager, the security guy, bald Tom who always wear boot cut jeans and looks really mean. Tom Spicer was slightly obsessed by him, and for a while I worried that his affections would shift from Lars to Tom the security guy mid filming.

This did not happen with Tom the security guy, but by the time we got really close to the centre of power there was a very great danger that Tom Spicer was going to do a capricious volte face and make James Hetfield the object of his affections.

I know that Lars is his one true hero but Tom Spicer does like to keep us on our toes.

And how was LwJH?

There were the great, the good, the bad and the ugly of the Metallica world in that TV studio. I didn't walk in front of a camera to press flesh network and sshnuffle up to showbiz-metal botty, but I did go and say hello to Louise Mensch and her husband, Peter, the big boss man at Metallica's management company Q Prime.

She was very lovely and charming and friendly and (to drop in a note perfect bad feminist detail here) has a ludicrously good body for a 40 year old mother of three. She told me she'd followed the blog when we were adventuring across America in our exploding toilet RV trying to find Lars; Peter Mensch didn't know what the hell I was on about until she did some wifely nudging and then he was very, very, briefly friendly. I suppose in music management terms Q Prime are like Barack Obama, but a lot better with money and planning, but slightly less urbane looking.

Man, for rock impresarios at the top of the premier league, Mensch was wearing some superbad jeans, as in, ugly, not 'bad' as in 'good'.

Mensch was the first person I spoke to in the management realms as we tried to make M2L happen. I rang him in NY from London late one night and I will never forget that phone conversation. The man was scary. I was lying on my sitting room floor, taking notes of the conversation (HOW I WISH I HAD RECORDED IT, a lesson to me there) and he was saying, with real big boy menace, words to the effect of, 'without our blessing at Q Prime you're fucked you little pip squeak nobody'

It was an exciting moment, and I knew that if I was working in, say, arms sales or organ sales, I couldn't have met a nicer guy. No, I'm joking, he was firm but fair. Frankly, I was seriously impressed. Working at home, alone, with occasional forays to the library and Ibiza, I have become a pussy. I'm wet. Occasionally I sally forth into newspaper offices where I always regret not having packed a helmet. The world of work is a tough place, and I am a freelance wetty. The world of heavy metal work is appropriately, a really really tough place. It's appropriate that Mensch's wife is an MP. Those two must be major hard asses.

Louise Mensch was a good egg. (She sits on the Culture Media and Sport Committee Murdoch inquisition but our glorious lady journalists are only interested in whether she has had a facelift or not - er, who gives a toss? I'd hazard fillers and botox, but what do i know, I only have them myself.) She asked me if Tom was at the filming and I said no, it's his birthday today (8th December) and he was in Cornwall having one of his beloved 'posh dinners' with his mate Bob, who is another hero of Tom's, but one we don't have to chase across America to find. She said he should have been there, and I felt sister shame and like those characters in Little Britain who use their kid's terminal illness to meet stars they want to meet.

Ah yes, the film, where is the film now. The film is waiting to hear which film festivals it has or has not got in to. And it is finished, fully graded, locked and all those other filmy business words I don't actually understand.

Anyway, better shuffle off to the library to be wet. Enough of this blog shaped wambling, it's time to do some efficient terse journalism.

Goodbye.
Ah hello again...
We have a Facebook page now, please come and visit it and say something friendly, or rude, either's cool. Don't know where the promised website is. (OY, WEBSITE DESIGNER - you know who you are - GET YOUR FUCKING ARSE IN GEAR or I'LL COME AND KICK IT FOR YOU. HELLO!?)

Ah, sweet, I'm not such a wetty afterall....

PS. Check out Mencap's Little Noise sessions, Being a wetty, I'm holding out for Chris Martin on 24th