NIGHTWISH‘s long-awaited “Imaginaerum” film — based on the band’s album of the same name — will be released theatrically in Finland on November 23.

The movie will have its premiere on November 10 at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, where the audience will be treated to both a full-scale NIGHTWISH concert and the first-ever public screening of the movie.

Eagerly anticipated around the world, “Imaginaerum” creates a musical fantasy world in the vein of David Lynch, Neil Gaiman, and Cirque du Soleil. The movie is an innovative mixture of story-telling and music, an extraordinary tale of the power of imagination… and what’s ultimately important in life.

Shot and post-produced in Canada, the movie was directed by Stobe Harju and produced by Solar Films, and features appearances by all NIGHTWISH members. The screenplay is based on a wild vision that Tuomas Holopainen, the mastermind of the band, devised after the album “Dark Passion Play” came out in 2007.

“I though of how we could take our expression that had already became pretty ambitious and grandiose to the next level, and that’s when I knew I wanted to tell a story, and to tell it with love and piety,” said Tuomas.

According to Holopainen, finishing the movie has been an eventful and challenging journey that has sometimes demanded superhuman dedication from the production crew.

“I want to already thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. Together we’ve managed to create something innovative, strange, and timeless,” Holopainen said.

The “Imaginaerum” screening at Hartwall Arena will be preceded by a show by the musicians NIGHTWISH themselves in what will be their last concert in Finland this year.

The official soundtrack of the movie, “Imaginaerum By Nightwish: The Score”, will be released on the day before the premiere — Friday, November 9. The album features 13 grandiose, unreleased re-interpretations of “Imaginaerum” tracks by Petri Alanko.

Several new photos from the “Imaginaerum” movie shoot can be found at this location.

“Imaginaerum” is one of the projects which received grants from the Finnish government institution called the Finnish Film Foundation. The movie, directed by Stobe Harju, about an old man on his deathbed who glimpses a childhood dream in which he refuses to grow old, and fights aging with his imagination, reportedly got $575,000 toward its $3.7 million budget.

During a September 2011 interview with Petri Silas of Finland’s Soundi magazine, NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen explained that all the filming for the “Imaginaerum” movie was done in Canada with mostly Canadian actors/actresses. Post-production took place in Canada and Finland. He aso revealed the names of the actors who have two of the main roles in the film: Marianne Farley and Quinn Lord.

Speaking to Loudwire, Holopainen stated about the plot of the “Imaginaerum” film, “Basically it’s about this old guy who used to be a composer and he’s really sick; he’s lying on his death bed in a hospital and he’s going through his life, through his dreams — that’s the basic storyline. It’s all about praising life and life’s beauty, imagination and all the strife and the bad stuff we have to face.

“[The storyline] came from the director; I just had the twelve ideas, the twelve visions. He basically wrote the script and storyline around those originally visions and the only one we had to leave out was the ‘Ghost River’ part, because we didn’t have the finance to realize that vision.”

Asked if the band appears in the film at all, Tuomas said, “A little bit, we are seen in two different scenes as a band, playing in the background. That’s something that I really emphasized to the director, ‘Please don’t put the band into the movie,’ because we want to do a believable story and we have no idea how to act. We are not actors so if your give us some lines and we tried to act, it would look goofy. He insisted to put us into the movie because it’s our brainchild, so we’re just playing in there as a band; it’s a good compromise.”

“Imaginaerum” film cast:

* Francis X. McCarthy
* Quinn Lord
* Marianne Farley
* Joanna Noyes
* Ilkka Villi
* Keyanna Fielding
* Ron Lea
* Victoria Jung
* Hélène Robitaille
* Stefan Demers
* Anette Olzon
* Marco Hietala
* Tuomas Holopainen
* Emppu Vuorinen
* Jukka Nevalainen

The “Imaginaerum” album was released in the U.S. on January 10 via Roadrunner Records.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

“Imaginaerum”, the new album from Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH, has been certified gold in Switzerland and Slovakia.

As previously reported, “Imaginaerum” was certified gold in Germany earlier this month for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.

The effort entered the official chart in Finland at position No. 1 and has already been certifield triple platinum in the country after shifting more than 60,000 units.

NIGHTWISH has now sold more than 1,000,000 albums in Germany.

“Imaginaerum” sold 12,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band’s previous CD, 2007′s “Dark Passion Play”, opened with 11,000 units to land at No. 84.

“Dark Passion Play” has sold more than 130,000 copies in the U.S. so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“Imaginaerum” was released in North America on January 10 via Roadrunner Records.

The track listing for the CD is as follows (note that track 12 is broken down into four parts):

01. Taikatalvi
02. Storytime
03. Ghost River
04. Slow, Love, Slow
05. I Want My Tears Back
06. Scaretale
07. Arabesque
08. Turn Loose the Mermaids
09. Rest Calm
10. The Crow, the Owl and the Dove
11. Last Ride of the Day
12. Song Of Myself
Song 1: From A Dusty Bookshelf
Song 2: All That Great Heart Lying Still
Song 3: Piano Black
Song 4: Love
13. Imaginaerum

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH recently spent time not only putting finishing touches to their new album, “Imaginaerum”, but also planning a movie of the same name.

“Imaginaerum” is one of the projects which recently received grants from the Finnish government institution called the Finnish Film Foundation. The movie, directed by Stobe Harju, about an old man on his deathbed who glimpses a childhood dream in which he refuses to grow old, and fights aging with his imagination, reportedly got $575,000 toward its $3.7 million budget.

During a September interview with Petri Silas of Finland’s Soundi magazine, NIGHTWISH mainman/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen revealed that all the filming for the “Imaginaerum” movie was done in Canada with mostly Canadian actors/actresses. Post-production is taking place in Canada and Finland. He aso revealed the names of the actors who have two of the main roles in the film: Marianne Farley and Quinn Lord.

Stobe Harju has now issued the following update on the “Imaginaerum” film:

“As most of you may know, we finished the director’s cut for the film. Everyone involved in the screening sessions were very happy and gave precious feedback that made the director’s cut.

“I can say this now, we are very, very, very happy with the cut.

“There are many people who deserve our appreciation, they are fellow directors, co-writers, actors and producers.

“There is still editing required for the visual effects to make us stay in the budget. This phase eventually makes the film and is crucial to the success of the final movie. Again, we are living exciting times.

“Now, filmmaking is mostly about letting go. Besides the editing, I had to say farewell to my very good friend and the editor of the film, Mathieu Bélanger, and his fantastic family who joined me in Finland for couple months. The heart and soul Mathieu put into this film cannot be described by words and I’m sure, our paths will cross in the future and in another project.

“Now, the film is in the good hands of another friend of mine Joshua Sherrett, his Workshop and the great team of Vision Global in Montreal. Their visual effects and their early concept sketches have blown us away several times already, and finally, they get to show us the meaning of the word ‘magic.’ Believe me when I say we’ve seen some pretty exciting stuff so far.

“As my work continues with them, it also continues with Petri Alanko and the soundtrack he’s producing with Tuomas. It’s miraculous how these guys can pull off something completely different but at the same time similar with the ‘Imaginaerum’ album songs. Well, it must be the 350 tracks per song on the album that give that possibility for the variations. Those crazy bastards.

“It’s just a matter of time when we have got something new and special to show you. We hope it’s quick because we can’t wait either.”

“Imaginaerum” film cast:

* Francis X. McCarthy
* Quinn Lord
* Marianne Farley
* Joanna Noyes
* Ilkka Villi
* Keyanna Fielding
* Ron Lea
* Victoria Jung
* Hélène Robitaille
* Stefan Demers
* Anette Olzon
* Marco Hietala
* Tuomas Holopainen
* Emppu Vuorinen
* Jukka Nevalainen

Several photos from the “Imaginaerum” movie shoot can be found at this location. A couple of the pictures are also available below.

The “Imaginaerum” album will be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 via Roadrunner Records.

NIGHTWISH will kick off the “Imaginaerum” world tour in Los Angeles. The very first show of the trek will take place at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California on Saturday, January 21. This will be the biggest NIGHTWISH show production ever on North American soil and strictly a one-off — there will be no U.S. tour until later in 2012.

Source: Blabbermouth.net