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After a triumphant UK debut which saw Nosferatu matched with Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac, the groundbreaking cinema experience Silents Synced has announced its next major event: Buster Keaton’s 1924 classic Sherlock Jr. scored live to R.E.M.’s Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Screenings will take place nationwide from 5 February 2026.
Silents Synced, which pairs legendary silent films with era-defining albums, offers audiences a bold reimagining of cinematic sound and storytelling. Each pairing is meticulously curated to create emotional and thematic synchronicity between film and music, bringing fresh life and renewed energy to century-old works.
Following the success of its inaugural UK programme – featuring F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu re-scored with the atmospheric textures of Radiohead – Silents Synced now turns its attention to one of silent comedy’s most innovative achievements.
Sherlock Jr. follows a daydreaming projectionist who imagines himself as a detective inside the films he screens, featuring breathtaking stunts that cemented Buster Keaton as a visionary of physical comedy and cinematic imagination.
R.E.M.’s music, which spans the raw alt-rock power of Monster to the expansive ambition of New Adventures in Hi-Fi, brings a thrilling new dimension to Keaton’s surreal, genre-bending comedy.
The project is endorsed by R.E.M. themselves. Bertis Downs, the band’s longtime manager, commented:
“The guys thought it sounded like a great idea. They were struck by the uncanny way their music aligned with Sherlock Jr. — it’s kind of perfect. What a brilliant and unexpected way to present great art.”
Each pairing in Silents Synced is thoughtfully curated, with albums selected not only for their musical resonance but for thematic parallels to the films themselves — resulting in unexpected yet harmonious cinematic experiences. The films and music are synced with care, creating emotional and narrative synchronicity that brings new life to century-old classics.
Created by independent cinema pioneer Josh Frank — writer, producer, and founder of the famous Austin, Texas boutique urban drive-in, the Blue Starlite — Silents Synced is designed for and by the indie cinema community. Frank has previously collaborated with Black Francis, David Lynch, Harold Ramis, The Marx bros. Estate, and Tim Heidecker, and authored official biographies on the Pixies.
Conceived as a creative solution to the challenges facing cinemas around the world, Frank explains:
‘The question for independent cinemas all across the world has become: what can we do to not remain solely reliant on new tentpole Hollywood releases to get product and experiences people can—increasingly—often wait and get at home? This has led us to something brand new out of necessity, in the same way great outsider art has always been created. It’s a whole new cinema experience that we feel both film obsessives and music fans will find something really unique in.”
The screening of R.E.M. X Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. in cinemas will be preceded by a special short film presentation of one of Keaton’s classic short film works, The Balloonatic (1923), soundtracked by a new composition by renowned Brazilian electronic artist, Amon Tobin.
Silents Synced R.E.M. X Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. in cinemas from 5 February 2026
Tickets:
R.E.M. X BUSTER KEATON’S SHERLOCK JR.
About Blue Starlite Entertainment
Blue Starlite Entertainment is the content division of Austin’s Blue Starlite Drive-In—the world’s first mini urban drive-in movie theatre, established in 2009. NBC News has referred to it as the ‘drive-in of the future,’ offering a nostalgic drive-in movie experience in an urban setting with modern amenities. Condé Nast named it “one of the world’s coolest outdoor movie theatres”. And it was featured in the November 2020 GQ list of “7 business’ helping the world stay sane during the pandemic”. Blue Starlite Entertainment is run by Blue Starlite’s CEO and creator Josh Frank, based in Austin, Texas.
In direct response to the pandemic and the writer’s strike that followed, revealing how little content there is when it’s main source of product becomes limited, Josh Frank created Silents Synced.
A new art form based in the traditions of midnight movies and the legendary tradition of playing Pink Floyd over The Wizard of Oz. Frank went to work on re-imagining what could motivate audiences to spend more time in their favourite cinemas experiencing things they can’t just get at home! The goal was to create new original innovative content in the form of experiential cinema that could be created by independent creators and could galvanize entirely new audiences to cinemas. Blue Starlite Entertainments Silents Synced is this creators’ proof of concept that independent artists and creators can bring new exciting experiences to cinemas outside the established channels. We hope to be the first of many indie creators who create new original cinema content experiences that can be offered directly to cinemas.
About Blue Starlite Owner Josh Frank
Josh Frank is an entrepreneur, writer, producer, director, and composer. He has penned numerous plays, including an authorised adaptation of Werner Hergoz’s Stroszek, screenplays, including an adaptation of Mark Vonnegut’s The Eden Express, and musicals, including The Jonathan Richman Musical. He is the author of Fool The World, the Oral History of the Band Called Pixies (St. Martin’s Press USA/Virgin Books U.K.) and In Heaven Everything Is Fine – The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers (Simon and Schuster/Free Press). In April 2014, Harper Collins released his novel, The Good Inn, co-written with Black Francis of the Pixies. Last year his 4th book A Marx Brothers and Salvador Dali lost story “Giraffes on Horseback Salad was released by Quirk Books and went on to be nominated for an Eisner Award. Over the last decade, Frank has worked with some of the most interesting and innovative musicians, filmmakers, producers and artists in the industry, including Black Francis, David Lynch and Harold Ramis. Frank has also interviewed over 400 of America’s most notable names in entertainment for his books and screenplays. With the rest of his time, he runs his Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theatre and Creates Silents Synced in his home office in Austin, Tx.
About CinemaLive
Established in 2008, CinemaLive is one of the world’s leading producers and distributors of premium Event Cinema for cinemas and big screen venues around the globe. They have a wealth of experience in the music industry, having had success distributing events from artists including Westlife, Take That, Little Mix, Mick Fleetwood, Radiohead, Elton John, Imagine Dragons, Nirvana, The Grateful Dead, Joe Satriani, Fatboy Slim, Cliff Richard and Bruce Springsteen.