KNOCKIN’ ON DYLAN’S DOOR
+ Elvis, Tina, Demi & Aretha
We are arguably in the midst of a golden era of music documentaries and biopics. And given the slate of upcoming releases, we have yet to hit the high watermark (err, crescendo).
In the last few months, we’ve seen acclaimed biopics released about Billie Holiday (Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday) and the blues singer Ma Rainey (Netflix’s release Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).
And for music documentaries, it’s an era that started about a decade ago when two broke into the mainstream —or at least beyond the typical die-hard documentary viewing audience: Searching for Sugar Man in 2012 and 20 Feet from Stardom in 2013.
This pairing scored back-to-back Academy Award wins in the Best Documentary category. Their success showed how even seemingly niche music topics could find a receptive (and lucrative) audience. In hindsight, this lesson feels somewhat apparent. Music documentaries can cut through the noise and bring the added benefits of a built-in fan-base and a natural soundtrack.
A music documentary can also be a more natural way to tell a great artist’s story than trying to shoehorn a complicated life and creative process into the cliches of the musical biopic sub-genre. The rise, fall, and redemption arc featured in celebrated films like Walk The Line and Ray can take on a deeper resonance when guided by the artist’s actual words, footage, and collaborators. As an iconic generation of musicians reaches their twilight years, many of them have fewer qualms about releasing archives, unheard recordings, and rock-and-roll stories.
Here’s a look at some of the upcoming music biopics and documentary features.
Tina
This documentary about the “Queen of Rock and Roll” features interviews with Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, and Tina Turner. According to HBO, the film covers Turner’s rise to fame, struggles and resurgence, and features never-before-seen footage, audiotapes, and personal photos.
It is from the directing duo of Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. They are frequent collaborators and Oscar winners for 2011’s Undefeated, about a Tennessee high school football team. According to the Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema, Martin is the first African-American director to win an Oscar for a feature film.
Later this month, Tina will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and be released by HBO on March 27, 2021.
Elvis
Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby) is the director, producer, and co-writer of this 2022 film. The biopic will track the life and career of the King of Rock and Roll.
Austin Butler (The Shannara Chronicles) fills Elvis’ blue suede shoes. He beat out names like Harry Styles and Miles Teller, according to Deadline. The film co-stars Tom Hanks as Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker. In early 2020, it was being shot in Australia when production had to halt following Hanks and his wife’s (Rita Wilson) COVID-19 diagnosis.
The acting ensemble also includes Australian actress Olivia DeJonge (Elle in Netflix’s The Society) as Priscilla Presley.
Elvis has been portrayed on screen before by big names, including Kurt Russell (in 1979s John Carpenter directed TV movie), Harvey Keitel (in Finding Graceland), and recently by Michael Shannon (in 2016’s Elvis & Nixon). But this will be the first theatrical released biopic to focus on the King solely. This project has been in production since 2014. It was set for a November 2021 premiere, but Warner Bros. Pictures pushed it out and is currently slated for a June 3, 2022 release.
Respect
Oscar and American Idol winner Jennifer Hudson will star as the Queen of Soul in this film currently set for an August 2021 release. South African director Liesl Tommy helms this biopic about the life of Aretha Franklin. Forest Whitaker fills out the ensemble as C. L. Franklin (Franklin’s minister father), Audra McDonald as Barbara Siggers Franklin (her mother), Marlon Wayans as Ted White (her producer and first husband), and Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington. The film was scheduled for a Christmas 2020 release, but it has been delayed by COVID-19.
Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil
The centerpiece of this new documentary will be the singer-songwriter/actress’s near-fatal overdose in 2018. According to the BBC, the film also features interviews with Elton John and Christina Aguilera.
Deadline reports that this documentary will premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival on March 16, 2021, and be available to stream on YouTube starting March 23, 2021.
Going Electric (rumored title)
In 2007, Director Todd Haynes’ 2007 musical drama film I’m Not There used six different actors (including Cate Blanchett in an Oscar-nominated performance) to explore legendary American folk singer Bob Dylan. Since then, Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, released his 35th album, and put out a seventeen-minute track about JFK’s assassination. So it makes sense that he was due for another biopic.
However, Director James Mangold’s (Ford v Ferrari, Logan, and Walk The Line) upcoming biopic will focus on only a small portion of Dylan’s career from the mid-to-late 1960s. Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Little Women) will play a young Dylan in the era when he “went electric” —starting at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. After the casting announcement, side-by-side photos showing the uncanny resemblance between Chalamet and mid-1960s Dylan trended on Twitter. According to IndieWire, COVID-19 has interrupted film production.
Maestro (rumored title)
Netflix has already acquired the rights to this untitled project directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper. Additionally, the Oscar-nominated actor/director will star as Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein is best known for his influential musicals scores, including West Side Story, On The Town, and the operetta Candide. He also composed the score for the Elia Kazan classic On The Waterfront.
The Steven Speilberg-produced film will focus on Bernstein’s marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre, according to Deadline. And, according to a letter published after his death, Montealegre knew that her husband had affairs with men.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal had a project about Bernstein (with director Cary Fukunaga), but according to Playbill.com, it ended after Netflix decided to support the Cooper/Speilberg production.
