To the sound of a train engine that’s first slow moving, then builds momentum, chugging along until it’s at full speed peak operation, we see pro basketball star Carmelo Anthony, a.k.a. Melo, in training as well as playing in an NBA game.
Images of him exercising off court and doing his thing on court are juxtaposed, the former including his running in the streets and up a steep flight of outdoor stairs, jumping rope, hoisting a medicine ball and pulling chains attached to a large concrete block and moving it steadily along the ground. On the hardwood, Melo is building to a bullet train speed crescendo as he patrols the court, eventually leaping to grab an alley-oop pass above the rim for what will undoubtedly be a monster dunk. A shot of a locomotive on a speeding track is intercut into that final play.
Inspired by the classic children’s story in which the choo-choo train utters “I think I can” repeatedly, the tagline to this spot is more definitive and appears but once: “I know I can,” followed by a glimpse of a speeding train and the logo for the Melo M4 line of Jordan Brand apparel.
Daniel Kleinman of Rattling Stick, London, directed “Engine” for Wieden + Kennedy, New York.
Johnnie Frankel produced for Rattling Stick. The DP was Stephen Blackman.
The W+K team included executive creative directors Todd Waterbury and Kevin Proudfoot, creative director/art director Keith Cartwright, copywriters Eric Steele and Scott Hayes, head of production Gary Krieg and producer Dan Blaney.
Steve Gandolfi of Cut+Run, London, edited the spot. Visual effects house was Framestore, New York.
Sound designer was Bill Chesley of Amber Music, New York. Audio mixer was Philip Loeb of Sound Lounge, New York.
What to Stream: “Wicked: For Good” Soundtrack, “Train Dreams,” “A Man on the Inside” and Black Cowboys
Ted Danson's "A Man on the Inside" returning to Netflix for its second season and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo belting out the "Wicked: For Good" soundtrack are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Aerosmith teaming up with Yungblud on a new EP, "The Bad Guys 2" hitting Peacock and Jordan Peele looking at Black cowboys in a new documentary series. New movies to stream from Nov. 17-23 — "Train Dreams," (Friday, Nov. 21 on Netflix), Clint Bentley's adaptation of Denis Johnson's acclaimed novella, stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, a railroad worker and logger in the early 20th century Pacific Northwest. The film, scripted by Bentley and Greg Kwedar (the duo behind last year's "Sing Sing" ), conjures a frontier past to tell a story about an anonymous laborer and the currents of change around him. — The DreamWorks Animation sequel "The Bad Guys 2" (Friday, Nov. 21 on Peacock) returns the reformed criminal gang of animals for a new heist caper. In the film, with a returning voice cast including Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos and Marc Maron, the Bad Guys encounter a new robbery team: the Bad Girls. In his review, AP's Mark Kennedy lamented an over-amped sequel with a plot that reaches into space: "It's hard to watch a franchise drift so expensively and pointlessly in Earth's orbit." — In "The Roses," Jay Roach ("Meet the Parents'), from a script by Tony McNamara ("Poor Things"), remakes Danny DeVito's 1989 black comedy, "The War of the Roses." In this version, Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star as a loving couple who turn bitter... Read More