32 | JULY 30 • 2020 

AT THE HELM OF A 
HUGE STREAMING HIT; 
FREDDIE’
S BIG SHOES 
Greyhound, a new big-budget 
film starring Tom Hanks (who also 
wrote the film), began streaming 
on Apple TV+ on July 10. It had the 
largest debut audience in Apple 
TV+ history and is now a summer 
streaming blockbuster. The title 
refers to the code name of a WWII 
U.S. Navy destroyer that escorted 
cargo ships crossing the Atlantic. 
These cargo ships and their war 
ship protectors were the subject of 
many Nazi sub attacks. The action 
centers on a three-day period in 
which all the Allied ships have to 
cope with many vicious attacks 
from a so-called “wolfpack” — 
four Nazi subs teamed up together.
Reviews are mostly positive. 
Hanks plays the captain of the 
Greyhound, and some critics 
kvetched that the script didn’
t 
flesh out Hanks’
 character 
enough. However, praise was 
universal for way the director, 
Aaron Schneider, 55, shot the 
film’
s action sequences and 
how he kept the film “taut.” 
Remarkably, by using a variety 
of new special effects, Schneider 
was able to make the film with-
out a single scene actually being 
shot in the water.
I was only recently able to con-
firm that Schneider is Jewish. Bio 
was scarce because even though 
he has long worked in Hollywood, 
he has directed just one other 
feature film (the well-received, 
2009 black comedy Get Low). 
After Greyhound began streaming, 
there was bio coverage in the 

local media near where Schneider 
grew-up (a small town near 
Peoria, Illinois). It mentioned that 
his father is Delwin Schneider, 
and that he is a 91-year-old 
Korean War veteran.
Online family history records 
disclosed that Schneider’
s parents 
are Jewish. By the way, Aaron 
credits Billy Crystal, 72, with giv-
ing him great advice. Thirty-five 
years ago, he was an unhappy 
college sophomore. He was 
studying engineering but wanted 
to get into film special effects. 
By chance, he met Crystal on a 
Florida beach and told him his 
ambition. “A very nice” Crystal, 
Aaron says, told him to go to film 
school. Schneider says that “go 
to film school” was not common 
advice 35 years ago, but it was 
the right advice.
The Show Must Go On: The 
Queen + Adam Lambert Story is 
a documentary now streaming on 
Netflix. Lambert, 38, first rose to 
fame as an American Idol finalist 
in 2009. Not long after the Idol 
finale, he was interviewed by Gail 
Zimmerman, then the arts editor 
of the Jewish News. He told Gail 
that he was raised in his mother’
s 
Jewish faith, and she told me that 
Adam couldn’
t have been more 
charming (find the interview in the 
archive at djnfoundation.org). 
In 2011, Lambert began peri-
odically touring with the surviving 
members of the rock band Queen. 
He is their lead singer, and that 
role inevitably leads to compari-
sons with the late Freddie Mercury, 
the band’
s legendary lead singer. 
The film covers this “issue” and 
much more. Lots of live concert 
footage. 

Arts&Life

celebrity jews

NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST

Gail Zimmerman and 
Adam Lambert

JN FILE PHOTO