Video: METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Interviewed For 'Mission To Lars' DVD, Blu-Ray

April 3, 2013

"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, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich, will be released film on DVD, Blu-ray and digitally on April 8 in the U.K. and Ireland, France, German-speaking Europe and Scandinavia through Clear Vision. The set will feature a special bonus 30-minute interview with Lars as a bonus. A four-minute excerpt from the can now be seen below.

Sales representative AV Pictures also sold the film to Sony for Japan and Curious Film for Australia and New Zealand.

"This film fits perfectly with Clear Vision's mission of delivering a multi-territory, multi-format and multi-channel solution for quality, independent producers," said Gil Garagnon, Clear Vision's international sales and marketing director.

"We are delighted to have Clear Vision on board with their great enthusiasm and vision for this heart-warming film," added Caroline Couret-Delègue, AV Pictures' sales & acquisitions director.

To pre-order the DVD, visit Amazon.co.uk.

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 Los Angeles, 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," said 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 in 2011 (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?

Speaking about the film, Ulrich told NME.com, "I thought it was deeply moving. I haven't seen the whole thing, but I saw a rough cut last summer. Meeting Tom, meeting Kate, when they came out to film it was an experience in itself. But seeing the film [in 2011] and reconnecting with the whole team was another experience."

He continued: "It's not something we're directly involved in, it's their film, their journey, but we're supportive of their endeavour. We don't want to take it over and have it turn into some kind of vanity project. It's a great testament into a world I didn't know much about, and a great testament to the importance of music and what it means to different people."

"Mission To Lars" is 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 was used as an outreach opportunity with talks and events following every screening. Many people, from color 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"'s profits will continue to be paid to Mencap for as long as the film has a life, DVD, international 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.

For more information, go to www.missiontolars.com.

"Mission To Lars" trailer:

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).