Bono Memoir ‘Surrender’ to Be Released in November

U2 singer Bono speaks to the media after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France on July 24, 2017. (AP)
U2 singer Bono speaks to the media after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France on July 24, 2017. (AP)
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Bono Memoir ‘Surrender’ to Be Released in November

U2 singer Bono speaks to the media after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France on July 24, 2017. (AP)
U2 singer Bono speaks to the media after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France on July 24, 2017. (AP)

The long-rumored memoir by Bono, U2′s frontman, is coming out Nov. 1.

Alfred A. Knopf announced Tuesday that the book, first signed up in 2015 but not officially disclosed at the time, will be called “Surrender.” Reports that he had a deal date back to at least 2019.

“When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I’d previously only sketched in songs,” the 62-year-old Irish singer and activist, born Paul David Hewson, said in a statement. “The people, places, and possibilities in my life. ‘Surrender’ is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands.

“In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim’s lack of progress ... With a fair amount of fun along the way.”

The book’s subtitle is “40 Songs, One Story,” a reference to the structure of “Surrender”: 40 chapters, each named for a U2 song. The band’s many hits include “With Or Without You,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”



Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Alfonso Cuarón is the first to admit that he does not know how to make a television series. He might even be too old to learn how, he said.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker has technically now made a series, the seven-part AppleTV+ show “Disclaimer,” four episodes of which premiered Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. But he did it his way: Like a film.

Based on Renée Knight’s 2015 book of the same name, “Disclaimer” is a psychological thriller about a documentarian and journalist, Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett), who discovers she’s a character in a novel that reveals her darkest secret.

Cuarón, Blanchett and Kevin Kline all made the journey to the Italian film festival to debut and speak about the show before it begins streaming on Oct. 11.

“I read the book and immediately in my mind I saw a film, but I didn’t know how to make that film,” Cuarón, the director of films including “Gravity” and “Roma,” said in a news conference Thursday. “It was way too long. I could not shape it as such.”

It was only later, he said, that he thought it might work in longer form, inspired by predecessors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, David Lynch and Krzysztof Kieślowski.

“I was intrigued and that was the point of departure,” Cuarón said.

He started writing with one name in mind for Catherine: Blanchett, terrified that she might say no. Not only did she not say no, she also was the one who suggested Kline for a British character. Sacha Baron Cohen plays her husband in the show and Kodi Smit-McPhee plays her son.

All soon realized that approaching it as a film, and shooting it as a film, would take much longer than a normal series. He even enlisted two cinematographers, Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel, to add a distinct visual language to the different perspectives in the story. All told, it took about a year.

“It was a really long process,” Cuarón said. “And I really feel for the actors because they were stuck with the characters for way too long.”

Blanchett laughed that they were “still recovering.”

The final three episodes will screen Friday at the festival. Though the festival is most known for its feature film premieres, it does play host to select series as well. This year those also include Joe Wright’s Mussolini biopic “M: Son of the Century,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The New Years” and Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours.”