Trafalgar Releasing and Anthem Entertainment have announced that RUSH — Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart — will return to the big screen as “Rush: Cinema Strangiato – Director’s Cut” comes to select movie theaters nationwide on September 9, 2021.
“Rush: Cinema Strangiato – Director’s Cut” brings RUSH fans together in movie theatres once again worldwide — this time to celebrate 40 years of “Moving Pictures”. This global fan event takes an alternate “director’s cut” of 2019’s feature, giving audiences a special look into “R40 Live”, with a revamped setlist including new additions of bonus tracks “One Little Victory” and “Red Barchetta” as well as “Cygnus X-1” / “The Story So Far” featuring Neil Peart‘s final recorded drum solo masterpiece. Additional favorites include songs such as “Animate”, “Closer To The Heart”, “Subdivisions” and “Tom Sawyer”, along with backstage moments and candid footage left on the cutting-room floor. The Director’s Cut also includes soundcheck performances of the fan-favorite “Jacob’s Ladder”, exclusive interviews with Tom Morello, Billy Corgan, Taylor Hawkins, producer Nick Raskulinecz, The Trailer Park Boys, violinist Jonathan Dinklage and more surprises.
Public ticketing for “Rush: Cinema Strangiato – Director’s Cut” begins on August 3. Ticket on-sale dates may vary by country. Visit cinemastrangiato.com for ticketing and the most up-to-date information regarding participating theaters.
“We are proud to once again bring RUSH to big screens worldwide in celebration of 40 years of ‘Moving Pictures’,” said Kymberli Frueh, Trafalgar Releasing SVP of content acquisitions. “RUSH has such a passionate following and we’re pleased to be able to share so many never-before-seen performances with fans through this new Director’s Cut of ‘Cinema Strangiato’.”
To accompany the announcement, RUSH has shared a snippet of the above-mentioned performance of “Cygnus X-1” / “The Story So Far”, which features Peart‘s final recorded drum solo.
RUSH singer/bassist Geddy Lee told the 93.3 WMMR radio station about “Cinema Strangiato”: “What it is is basically a way of celebrating the ‘R40’ tour in the sense on a big screen. It’s taking a lot of stuff that fans might have seen on that video, the concert footage, but it’s added a few twists to it — there’s some soundcheck footage, there’s some pieces that people haven’t seen and haven’t been released, and there are interviews with various musicians blah-blah-blah-ing about us. [Laughs] So I think the intent of the record company, in that regard, was just to create something that you can’t have at home. Going into a venue with a ton of other like-minded RUSH fans and celebrating the final tour, as it were.”
Peart died in January 2020 in Santa Monica, California after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old.
RUSH‘s final show took place at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 1, 2015. Peart indicated at the time that he wanted to retire while he was still able to play well, along with a desire to spend more time at home with his young daughter.
Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson have repeatedly said that RUSH will never do a show unless all three musicians agree to take part. They haven’t performed as RUSH without Peart since he joined the band in 1974.
