HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 50 Passes to ‘Taking Woodstock’ Chicago Screening With Emile Hirsch

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CHICAGO – In our latest trippy edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated Chicago screening of “Taking Woodstock” from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain” and “Sense and Sensibility”). “Taking Woodstock” stars Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Dan Fogler, Demetri Martin, Paul Dano, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy.

To win your free pass to the advance screening of “Taking Woodstock” in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is answer our question below. That’s it! The screening will be held on Aug. 27, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

The movie poster for “Taking Woodstock” with Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Paul Dano.
Image credit: Focus Features

Here is the “Taking Woodstock” plot description:

“Taking Woodstock” is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music & Arts Festival into the famed happening it was.

Featuring a standout ensemble cast and songs from a score of 1960s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish (along with a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens), “Taking Woodstock” is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

Working as an interior designer in Greenwich Village, Elliot feels empowered by the gay rights movement. But he is also still staked to the family business: a dumpy Catskills motel called the El Monaco that is being run into the ground by his overbearing parents, Jake and Sonia Teichberg (Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton). In the summer of 1969, Elliot has to move back upstate to the El Monaco in order to help save the motel from being taken over by the bank.

Upon hearing that a planned music and arts festival has lost its permit from the neighboring town of Wallkill, N.Y., Elliot calls producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures to offer his family’s motel to the promoters and generate some much-needed business. Elliot also introduces Lang to his neighbor, Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), who operates a 600-acre dairy farm down the road.

Soon the Woodstock staff is moving into the El Monaco and half a million people are on their way to Yasgur’s farm for “three days of peace and music in White Lake”.

With a little help from his friends including theater troupe leader Devon (Dan Fogler), recently returned Vietnam veteran Billy (Emile Hirsch) and cross-dressing ex-Marine Vilma (Liev Schreiber) – and with a little opposition from townspeople including Billy’s brother, Dan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) – Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life and popular culture forever.

“Taking Woodstock” is a Focus Features presentation of an Ang Lee film starring Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Eugene Levy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Imelda Staunton with Emile Hirsch and Liev Schreiber.

Casting by Avy Kaufman. Costume designer is Joseph G. Aulisi. Music supervisor is Joe Boyd. Music by Danny Elfman. Editor is Tim Squyres. Production designer is David Gropman. Director of photography is Eric Gautier. Based on the Book by Elliot Tiber with Tom Monte. Executive producer is Michael Hausman. Produced by James Schamus, Ang Lee and Celia Costas. Screenplay by James Schamus. Directed by Ang Lee.

The “Taking Woodstock” movie trailer can be watched now below.

To secure your free tickets now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Having an account with a valid e-mail address is required. Then, simply add a new comment in the form below. In your comment, include an answer to this simple question:

Like all Hookups here, this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup is simple: Just submit your comment below and we will award 50 people randomly via e-mail. Winners needs to arrive early as seats are consumed on a first-come, first-served basis. “Taking Woodstock” opens on Aug. 28, 2009.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com