The story of Milwaukee’s Lightning and Thunder is heading to the big screen Christmas Day starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson − and the first trailer is out now.
Studio Focus Features released the preview online Sept. 9 for the film “Song Sung Bllue” starring Jackman as Mike Sardina and Hudson as Claire. The musical partners turned married couple performed in a Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline tribute act in the Milwaukee area beginning in 1989, including performances at the Wisconsin State Fair (where they got married) and as a special impromptu guest for a Pearl Jam show at Summerfest’s amphitheater in 1995.
Mike Sardina, whose stage name was Lightning, died in 2006 due to a head injury, and Claire Sardina lost part of her leg after being struck by a car.
“I’m elated and a little dumfounded,” Claire Sardina, who lives in Menomonee Falls, said in a statement when the film was announced last year. “All of the hype has taken me back to when my wonderful husband was alive and by my side. It’s been wonderful to go back in time.”
The trailer begins with Jackman as Mike Sardina passionately proclaiming, “I’m not a songwriter, I’m not a sex symbol, I just want to entertain people,” with Hudson as Claire Sardina responding, “I don’t want to be a hairdresser, I want to sing, I want to dance, I want a garden, I want a cat.”
The trailer shows the musical collaborators selecting their act, discussing their stage name, doing their first rehearsals in a kitchen and having their first kiss, before the trailer shifts to a more dramatic tone alluding to the trauma Mike Sardina experienced after serving in Vietnam and his struggle with alcoholism. The trailer cuts back and forth between difficult moments − “Bad things happen over and over,” Hudson’s Claire Sardina says as Jackman’s Mike Sardina looks for work in the classifieds − and joyful ones, including garage rehearsals, bar gigs, and their wedding, with Jackman singing Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
“I can’t thank Neil, because every thank you I got belongs to you doll,” Jackman’s Mike Sardina says at the trailer’s dramatic climax to Hudson’s Claire Sardina. “You’re my ‘August Night,’ my ‘September Morn,’ my ‘Cracklin’ Rosie,'” he adds, all references to Diamond songs.
The film, also starring Michael Imperioli, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi, Ella Anderson, King Princess, Mustafa Shakir and Hudson Hilbert Hensley, was written and directed by Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”), and is based on an award-winning 2008 documentary also called “Song Sung Blue.”
Ahead of the film, which is poised to be an Academy Awards contender, the Wisconsin Area Music Industry this spring awarded Claire and Mike Sardina the first WAMI Lifetime Achievement Award at the 45th annual WAMI Awards.
Chris Foran of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Piet Levy at (414) 223-5162or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The trailer is out for ‘Song Sung Blue,’ about Milwaukee band Lightning & Thunder
Reporting by Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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