Erik Nelson: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed award-winning filmmaker Erik Nelson (Terror and Glory: 1945) and his production company Creative Differences for worldwide representation in all areas.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosting a daytime talk show for a week — a veritable Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.That’s exactly what happened 52 years ago when the erstwhile Beatle and his wife brought peace, love and counterculture to Middle America on “The Mike Douglas Show.”Just months after “Imagination” was released, that radical week — with five shows airing Feb. 14-18, 1972 — saw Lennon and Ono chatting up guests that they had selected to spread their utopian vision in the final years of the Vietnam War.It’s a memorable moment in time that is revisited in the new documentary “Daytime Revolution” playing in theaters on Wednesday, which would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday.

EXCLUSIVE: It may sound hard to believe, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono became daytime talk show hosts more than 50 years ago – the Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson or Drew Barrymore of their time. For one week only.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “Daytime Revolution,” a documentary about the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted “The Mike Douglas Show” in early 1972. Directed by Erik Nelson, with creative consultation from Ono and her son, Sean Ono Lennon, the doc uses archival footage from each of the five 70-minute shows as well as interviews with six surviving guests, including Ralph Nader, to tell the behind-the-scenes story of theses shows.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show. Titled Daytime Revolution, the documentary was authorised by Ono and Lennon’s son, Sean, and will include archival footage from each of the five episodes co-hosted by the famous couple in 1972. Daytime Revolution was directed by Erik Nelson, and will feature interviews with surviving guests who were interviewed by Lennon and Ono on The Mike Douglas Show, as well as behind-the-scenes stories of the pair’s week-long stint.According to Variety, production has wrapped on Daytime Revolution, with its producers currently seeking a distributor.Across their five-episode run on The Mike Douglas Show, Lennon and Ono discussed then-controversial topics like environmental conservation and police brutality, and interviewed activists like Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale, and lecturer and attorney Ralph Nader.Speaking of Daytime Revolution, Nelson said: “It’s become a cliche that Woodstock was the defining moment of the counterculture, [but] when I watched these broadcasts in their entirety, I realized that, in reality, this week in 1972, when Lennon and Ono essentially hijacked the airwaves and presented the best minds and dreams of their generation to the widest possible mass audience… was as far as the counterculture would ever get.”A release date for Daytime Revolution has not yet been announced.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon have authorized “Daytime Revolution,” a documentary about the week John Lennon and Ono co-hosted “The Mike Douglas Show” in early 1972, a few months after the release of their single “Happy Christmas (War Is Over).” The Shout! Studios, Creative Differences, and CBS Media Ventures feature docu uses archival footage from each of the five 70-minute shows as well as interviews with six surviving guests, including Ralph Nader, to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the unprecedented week. While Ono and her son did not participate on camera, the duo approved and creatively consulted on the project. Directed by Erik Nelson, the 108-minute docu recently wrapped production and is looking for a distributor as Ono prepares to celebrate her 90th birthday Feb. 18. “It’s become a cliche that Woodstock was the defining moment of the counterculture,” Nelson says, but “when I watched these broadcasts in their entirety, I realized that, in reality, this week in 1972, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono essentially hijacked the airwaves and presented the best minds and dreams of their generation to the widest possible mass audience of what was then called ‘Middle America,’ was as far as the counterculture would ever get. Not just music but a prescient blueprint for the future we now live in.”