One Direction: The Movie

‘This Is Us’ premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square on 20th August, 2013. 10,000 ‘Directioners’, some of whom had slept rough for three nights, were there to catch a glimpse of their favourite boyband.

The documentary, directed by ‘Supersize Me’s Morgan Spurlock, went on to take $18m in its Labor Day opening weekend in the US - but failed to scale the heights of Justin Beiber’s effort, ‘Never Say Never’.

In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion unpick the secret of the boys’ success; explain why X Factor winner Matt Cardle was mysteriously disappeared from the movie; and reveal an unexpected connection between 1D and Osama Bin Laden... 

Further Reading:

• One Direction "This Is US" London Premiere Part 1 (Poveelive, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ_Kd4JC0ck

• ‘This Is Us’ on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2515086/

• ‘Morgan Spurlock, Director Of ‘This Is Us,’ Explains Why He Cut One Direction’s Girlfriends Out Of Documentary’ (HuffPo, 2013):

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/this-is-us-girlfriends-cut-morgan-spurlock_n_3839053

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2021.

#2010s #Music #Film #UK

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