(CelebrityAccess) – Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner has relaunched Castle Rock Entertainment with a multi-million dollar film fund. Reiner and Castle Rock brought us the classic hits, In the Line of Fire and The Shawshank Redemption.
In speaking with Variety, Reiner gave a glimpse into the relaunch and future projects, a sequel to Wind River and a movie about Bert Berns, the talented songwriter who produced “Cry to Me” (Solomon Burke), “Under the Boardwalk” (The Drifters), “Brown Eyed Girl” (Van Morrison), “My Girl Sloopy” (The Vibrations) – later changed to “Hang on Sloopy” after The McCoys recorded it, and “Twist and Shout” (Isley Brothers) among many, many others. Reiner wrote the screenplay for the Berns project, which will be called “Piece of My Heart” (Erma Franklin) after another one of Berns’ great songs.
Berns’ catalog of songs has been recorded by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, among many others. He headed up his record label (Bang Records) and learned his craft under the tutelage of Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler. Bang Records launched the career of superstar Neil Diamond. Berns had a history of cardiac issues due to rheumatic fever that he contracted while a child. He passed away in his NYC apartment at the age of 38 from heart failure.
Berns was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 – the recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement.
“He only lived to 38,” says Reiner. “But between the ages of 30 and 38, he wrote and recorded 250 songs. The list of hits is just insane, and he had a really interesting life.”
