Malcolm McDowell: No Star Wars Without Stanley Kubrick! – Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle Season 2 is out now! Malcolm on Clockwork Orange, SF, George Lucas. All ten episodes of the highly-anticipated second season of Amazon Original Series Mozart in the Jungle just premiered exclusively on Prime Video in the US, UK, Germany and Austria. The new season will feature a roster of new guest stars including Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), and Esai Morales (The Brink). Classical music luminaries will also make special appearances, including Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel, world-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang, Grammy-winning classical pianist Emanuel Ax, New York Philharmonic Music Director and acclaimed conductor Alan Gilbert, and opera composer and conductor Anton Coppola, with violinist/conductor Joshua Bell also returning this season.
Based on the critically acclaimed memoir by Blair Tindall, Mozart in the Jungle is a half-hour comedic drama that looks at finding yourself and finding love while conquering the music world of New York City. Returning to the series are stars Gael Garcia Bernal (Rosewater) as maestro Rodrigo, Saffron Burrows (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) as worldly cellist Cynthia, Lola Kirke (Mistress America) as young oboist Hailey, Malcolm McDowell (The Mentalist) as former conductor Thomas and Bernadette Peters (Smash) as board chairwoman Gloria. The second season of Mozart in the Jungle is executive produced by Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom), Jason Schwartzman (The Darjeeling Limited), and Paul Weitz (About a Boy).
In the second season, despite months of practice, the orchestra’s growth has stalled since Rodrigo’s triumphant debut as Maestro. An upcoming Latin America tour, a potential labor strike, and illicit romances hang over the symphony, especially for Rodrigo, whose Mexico City performance will be a highly anticipated homecoming… if it is still his home. Hailey struggles to find her footing, both romantically and professionally, when an opportunity arises in the oboe section. She must navigate the increasingly blurred lines of her relationship with Rodrigo while forging a path as both an independent woman and a musician. Meanwhile, with the orchestra’s current contract set to expire, Gloria and Cynthia find themselves pitted against one another. The musicians’ failure to agree on pizza toppings does not bode well for harmony amidst the upcoming high-stakes negotiations. To preserve not just the current calendar season, but the symphony’s very existence, Rodrigo must inspire his orchestra family to “play with the blood” in order to transcend all.
Season two’s scope expands with exotic locales (from LA’s Hollywood Bowl to Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes), new virtuosos from the classical music world, and even more episodes helmed by the show’s esteemed creators (Roman Coppola, Paul Weitz, and Jason Schwartzman, who makes his directorial debut). This year, our players grapple with ancient curses, rogue softball leagues, and the spectral hecklings of Mozart himself.
Guest stars returning this season include Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride), Debra Monk (The Devil’s Advocate), Mark Blum (Shattered Glass), Joel Bernstein (Chapelle’s Show) and Brennan Brown (Beauty and the Beast).
New characters this season include:
- Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire) as Nina –The New York Symphony’s contract is up for negotiation and they need a real badass to fight for them, so they bring in Nina Robertson, veteran labor lawyer who’s just come off a big win for the NHL Players’ Union. She’s smart, aggressive, and doesn’t give a damn what people think about her. She’s successful because she makes the battle personal, but in this case it may be too personal.
- Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding) as Andrew Walsh – A dashing superstar cellist who commands the audience’s attention when he plays a solo with the New York Symphony. He woos Hailey by bringing her to Lang Lang’s private party where they drink, bowl, and sing karaoke with classical music royalty, Andrew’s contemporaries.
- Esai Morales (The Brink) as Juan Luis Delgado –The richest man in Mexico (and sometimes the world, depending on the day). The New York Symphony has a meeting to solicit a large donation, but it’s clear he’s a man who can’t be convinced by corporate jargon—he’s more interested in his legacy.
- Aaron Moten (The Flick on Broadway) as Erik Winklestrauss –An investment banking wunderkind who’s also the newest member of the symphony’s executive board. Even though they’re from different worlds, he and Hailey hit it off, both having sacrificed much of a social life for their successes.
- Luke Rampersad (Solace) as Lennox – In need of a guest conductor, Thomas brings in Lennox—a brash, cocky prodigy who sees Rodrigo as part of the old guard. It’s hard for Rodrigo to see Lennox conducting his orchestra, especially since he’s much more harsh–now Rodrigo knows how Thomas felt when he took over.
- Anton Coppola (composer and conductor) as Marcello Gallitelli – A world-renowned oboist who invites Hailey, Bradford, and Lizzie into his apartment at the Ferndale home for musicians and regales them with tales from a life in music while teaching them how to make a proper cocktail. He and Hailey quickly connect as he encourages her to play for him and to assert herself so she can be the first oboist she has the talent to be.
- Gustavo Dudamel – The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Music and Artistic director and acclaimed conductor and violinist appears as the Hollywood Bowl’s stage manager, wondering if there’s any truth to the rumors that Rodrigo will come to the Los Angeles Philharmonic if his orchestra strikes.
Guest stars playing themselves this season include:
- World-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang
- Violinist/conductor Joshua Bell
- Grammy-winning classical pianist Emanuel Ax
- Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic’s music director and acclaimed conductor/violinist
Prime members can stream all 10 episodes of Mozart in the Jungle at no additional cost to their Prime membership with the Amazon Video app for TVs, connected devices and mobile devices, or online athttp://amzn.to/1NbbdHV. Prime members can also download the series for offline viewing on iOS, Android and Fire devices at no additional cost. In addition to SD and HD, the series is also available in 4K Ultra HD on compatible smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Sony.
Customers who are not already Prime members can sign up for a free 30-day trial at amazon.com/prime.
Malcolm McDowell has created a gallery of iconic characters since catapulting to the screen as Mick Travis, the rebellious upperclassman in Lindsay Anderson’s prize-winning sensation, If…
His place in movie history was subsequently secured when Stanley Kubrick found the actor he was searching for to play the gleefully amoral Alex in A Clockwork Orange; when McDowell himself conceived the idea for Mick Travis’ further adventures in Anderson’s Candid-like masterpiece, O Lucky Man!; and when he wooed Mary Steenburgen and defeated Jack the Ripper as the romantically inquisitive H.G. Wells in Time After Time.
For his motion picture work, the American Cinemateque honored him with a retrospective in June 2001, highlighted by showings of his electrifying performances in two major works. The first is Paul McGuigan’s Gangster No. 1, in which McDowell and Paul Bettany portray the consumed, driven title character and which affords McDowell the chance to create a character both on screen and through nuanced voice-over. The second is Russian director Karen Chakhnazarov’s acclaimed and rarely seen Assassin of the Tsar, which Vincent Canby called “a remarkable mystical and psychological exploration of the murder of the Romanov family.”
His film credits are further highlighted by his compellingly sinister Caligula; the brilliant literary editor Maxwell Perkins in Martin Ritt’s Cross Creek; his cameo in Robert Altman’s The Player; and his final incarnation of Mick Travis in Britannia Hospital, the third film in Anderson’s trilogy marking the disintegration of British culture.
McDowell’s film work also includes Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, In Good Company, I Spy, Robert Altman’s The Company; Robert Downey Sr.’s Hugo Pool with Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr. and Cathy Moriarty; Just Visiting, Mr. Magoo, Hugh Hudson’s My Life So Far, Blue Thunder, Neil Marshall’s Doomsday in 2007, Rob Zombie’s Halloween I & II, and the voice of villain, Dr. Calico, in Disney’s 2008 box office hit, Bolt. In late 2011, Malcolm was seen in the Academy Award winning silent film sensation, The Artist.
On television, McDowell continued his recurring appearances as Terence on the hit HBO series, Entourage until the show ended, in addition to appearances on Heroes, CSI: Miami, and The Mentalist. In summer of 2011, Malcolm starred in his own show, TNT’s, Franklin & Bash, as Stanton Infeld.
