Bill Murray invites the audience to travel with him as he recites Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road, 9 in the new trailer for New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization. The clip premiered via Variety.
The Andrew Muscato-directed film, which was culled during Murray and renowned cellist Jan Vogler’s final New Worlds European tour performance at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece during their 2018 New Worlds tour, will premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in July. The trailer shows them rehearsing for the show, as well as the night’s performance. Murray also sings “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story and Van Morrison’s “When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God.” Violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez provide accompaniment.
Murray and Vogler first debuted material from their New Worlds classical album in the summer of 2017 in Dresden, Germany followed by an American premiere in Napa Valley. The New Worlds LP arrived that September.
Murray described the project at the time as “the collision of America and Europe,” to the New York Times. “We are from four different continents. And when the continents come together, the music moves right across the peninsulas from one to the other. It’s just a short journey from one continent to the other.”