One of two upcoming movies about the late singer/songwriter begins to move forward.
Penn Badgley (‘Gossip Girl’) has landed the role of Jeff Buckley in the Dan Algrant-directed ‘Greetings from Tim Buckley.’ The project is one of two movies in development about the talented singer/songwriter.
Described as a “father-son drama” rather than a biopic, the movie follows the true story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley’s eminent 1991 performance at his father’s tribute concert in St. Ann’s Church. Through a romance with a young woman working at the concert, he comes to understand the father who abandoned him. Culminating in a cathartic performance of his father’s most famous songs, Jeff’s debut stuns the audience and launches his career as one of the greatest young musicians of his time.
“We had been searching well over a year for an actor that can come close to Jeff’s spirit while also having the serious musical chops required to authentically tell this story,” the film’s producer Patrick Milling Smith says. “Penn’s audition blew us away and we knew we found our star.”
Badgley said, “To play a man who was singularly gifted as an artist, greatly misunderstood & mythologized as a human being… It’s something very special and sacred. I’m going to give all I can to this project.”
The music used in the movie will come from the Tim Buckley estate, apart Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah.’
Algrant (‘People I Know,’ ‘Naked in New York’) penned the screenplay with Emma Sheanshang and David Brendel. The movie is now in preproduction and is set to start filming in New York City in August.
The second Jeff Buckley movie, which is currently untitled, is still on the lookout for its lead. Jake Scott (‘Welcome to the Rileys’) is set to direct, with a script by Ryan Jaffe (‘The Rocker’). The biopic is based on the biography ‘Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley’ by David Browne and has the full blessing of the Jeff Buckley estate, with the singer’s mother, Mary Guibert, on board as executive producer.