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Most rock biopics end with a triumphant performance — a symbolic onstage conquering of demons, whether at Folsom Prison (by Johnny Cash in Walk the Line), Live Aid (Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody) or the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (Dylan, A Complete Unknown). It’s the obvious emotional payoff: Performers are at their best while performing, and the energy of an onscreen audience can raise that of the one in the theatre.
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The new Bruce Springsteen film, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, doesn’t end like that, though. It ends with Springsteen breaking down in a psychiatrist’s office. And the closest it gets to a concert finale is a “10 months later” epilogue, set backstage after a show, when an adult Springsteen sits on his father’s knee as they begin to come to terms with the fractures in their relationship.
In other words, Deliver Me From Nowhere, which opened Oct. 24, is a very small story about a very big rock star. It takes place in less than a year, at a turning point in Springsteen’s career when he was already playing arenas but before Born in the U.S.A. made him a global superstar. Most of the story unfolds in and around a house Springsteen rented in Colts Neck, New Jersey, and on the surface it’s the story of how he made the downcast, acoustic album Nebraska. But it’s really about a man struggling to come to terms with his past — especially his relationship with his troubled father — in a way that will help him navigate his future. Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield describes the film as “a whole movie of men talking about Bruce Springsteen’s problems, one of whom is Bruce.”
I’m a big Springsteen fan, and I loved the movie. If you’re a fan, it tells the story of an interesting time: Springsteen finished the tour for The River in fall 1981, released an acoustic album that sounded different from anything else he had done a year later, and reemerged in spring 1984 as a buff megastar with what would become one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s. The best source of information about this time is Warren Zanes’ compelling 2023 book Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, on which the movie is based. By rock biopic standards, Deliver Me From Nowhere is extremely accurate — and the only composite character seems to be a single mom that Springsteen dates.
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Deliver Me From Nowhere is the movie Nebraska deserves, maybe even the one it demands, which is to say nuanced and a bit uncommercial. Recorded at home on a four-track machine and barely produced, Nebraska sounded like nothing else out there in 1982 — the closest sonic comparisons would have been old folk recordings or the lo-fi indie rock that was to come. Deliver Me From Nowhere is the only movie this year that nods to Flannery O’Connor’s stories and Terrence Malick’s Badlands — and perhaps the only movie ever to include Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop,” a song so abrasive that in the movie it takes recording engineer Mike Batlan aback.
This makes Deliver Me From Nowhere a very different kind of film from a business perspective. Part of the point of most rock movies is to boost streaming, which worked incredibly well for the Queen and Dylan catalogs. (Deliver Me From Nowhere is accompanied by a deluxe reissue of Nebraska, and it will boost streaming as well.) But those movies made an implicit argument for the importance of those acts by showing them at their biggest and best.
Deliver Me From Nowhere includes songs that people who aren’t Springsteen fans wouldn’t know, in a style that the artist isn’t widely known for. Springsteen is at his best onstage, and he has an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor. But the movie doesn’t really show him performing, and the emotional crisis he’s suffering saps his sense of humor. That may have made the film a harder sell. After two weeks in theaters, it has grossed $16 million in the United States and $30 million worldwide, which is very respectable but less than predicted.
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Deliver Me From Nowhere works for the same reason Nebraska does — it’s raw and real. There were easy ways to make this simpler and more accessible, from ending with the release of Born in the U.S.A. to making the record executives the bad guys. (They were generally skeptical but supportive.) To its credit, though, the movie doesn’t go there, which was the right decision.
By the early ’90s, Nebraska had emerged as the Springsteen album for alt-rock fans who thought they were too cool for Born in the U.S.A., and Zanes points out in his book how influential it was on indie rock. Deliver Me From Nowhere will last for the same reasons — moreso if actors Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen) or Jeremy Strong (manager Jon Landau) are nominated for acting awards — and it shows that rock movies can work on a character-driven scale. If you care about Springsteen, though, see it now.
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Bruce Springsteen is, of course, the musical focus of the newly released film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, adapted by director and screenwriter Scott Cooper from Warren Zanes’ book, with Jeremy Allen White starring as The Boss. But astute viewers will see some other familiar, and perhaps surprising, rock ‘n’ roll faces in the production.
Scenes depicting Springsteen joining a “local” band at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, feature an all-star lineup assembled by the film’s music producer, Dave Cobb. The band is led by Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons and includes Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka on guitar, Sam F. Kiszka on bass, keyboardist Bobby Emmett from Jack White’s band, and Nashville drummer Aksel Coe.
Their gut-bucket renditions of Little Richard’s “Lucille” and John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” both performed with White and recorded at New York City’s Power Station, are featured on the soundtrack, set to release Dec. 5, along with a non-movie rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.”
It captures the Greta guys during a bit of down time for the band. Sam Kiszka has been producing, working with artists like Langhorne Slim and Hannah Wicklund, while Jake launched a new group, Mirador, with Chris Turpin of Ida Mae. Their self-titled debut came out in September, followed by a tour, with a European leg starting Nov. 3 in Amsterdam.
The random casting begs the question: what are these guys doing in a film about Bruce Springsteen? Luckily, Jake Kiszka was on hand to tell Billboard how it all came together.
Have you seen yourselves on the big screen yet?
I haven’t, man, but we want to get back to Michigan and take my grandma to the cinema that she took us to as kids to watch it. I can’t wait for that.
So how did it happen?
It’s interesting. It began through Dave Cobb; he produced the last Greta album (2023’s Starcatcher) and was helping me produce this current Mirador record. We were sitting around on the dock out by the water at his house in Savannah (Georgia) and he said, “I’ve just been working on this Deliver Me From Nowhere film about Nebraska and Springsteen,” and he said the director, Scott Cooper, was looking for a young band who could be the house band for the Stone Pony during this era of Springsteen. And Scott said, “I’m really looking for a young, sort of hop rock ‘n’ roll band like Greta Van Fleet.” And Dave’s like, “Well, I know someone… Why don’t we just ask those guys?” He as me and then he needed a bass player and guitar player, so Sam and I sort of stepped up to the plate. That’s how it began.
Not something you say “no” to.
Definitely. It was completely unexpected, but there’s been so many opportunities like this that come across through the grapevine. A lot of this stuff it’s like, “OK, that’s cool, but we’re touring” or doing a record, whatever we’re busy with at the time. This came through and it was like, you definitely can’t say no to this because Bruce Springsteen is such a big influence on us. This is definitely not something we had foreseen happening, but it was irresistible. It was a fascinating thing to do, the intersection between film and cinema meets music.
What was the sequence of events as you got into the project?
The first step was recording. We went to the Power Station in New York, where (E Street Band attempts at) Nebraska and a lot of the Springsteen stuff was recorded, and we did the whole thing there. Jeremy came in as well. It was really rough and tumble; we maybe got two or three passes on each song. The idea was we were gonna record (more) at the Stony Pony while we were filming, so we were under the impression of, “OK, let’s give this a go, git it our best, and ultimately have another go at it when we’re on the set and filming.”
Which wound up not being the case?
What happened is Bruce heard what we had recorded (in the studio) and he was so enamored with it and loved it so much that Scott Cooper decided we were gonna use those recordings from the Power Station in studio, which is quite cool.
What were your impressions of working with Jeremy on a musical level?
It was interesting for him because he’s an actor, so this was a totally different world. And he blended into it so well. I think he had reservations about stepping onto that (music) world, maybe some subtle level of intimidation. I know I was certainly intimidated when I walked onto the film set, and he was probably just swimming. But he did some live vocals, which is incredible; Jay is obviously just a remarkable rock ‘n’ roll singer, so Jeremy came in and stood next to jay, and it was impressive to see him step up to the plate fearlessly like that.
Did you give him any pointers during the process?
Being able to show Jeremy how to play harmonic was really interesting and cool. I was kind of asked by (Cobb) if I could teach Jeremy a bit of harmonica for the film, so I bought him a chromatic scale of harps to use. I’m not entirely proficient as most harmonica players, but I knew enough from my father playing blues harmonica, so I was able to show him some stuff.
What was filming at the Stone Pony like?
That was really incredible. What was really interesting was we had played the Stone Pony; Greta had done the outdoor summer venue (May 18, 2019), so it was interesting coming back and knowing the place and history. We’ve done late-night television and stuff like that, but this was a very different experience. Being there on this major motion picture set, this big production with Bruce Springsteen hanging around on set and Steven Spielberg coming by and Danny Clinch shooting (photographs), it was like an alternative universe. Ultimately it was quite overwhelming.
You got to hang with Springsteen?
He was just there on set. He was going to catering and stuff, hanging out with everybody, with the extras and us. It was a really casual experience. He was really humble and sort of exceeded expectations of meeting one of your heroes… just the most beautiful and incredible human being. There was a lot of time on the set I got to talk to him… about Nebraska and his career and early life. It was an unreal experience.
Were there any nuggets of wisdom or insight you took away from it?
I suppose so. We talked about Nebraska a lot. It’ s my favorite Bruce Springsteen record, so I was talking to him about recording demos… and how they tried to re-record (the songs) with the E Street Band and they couldn’t recapture the magic of the demos. That was really fascinating, that the record is just that demo. It’s just unbelievable. So certainly a takeaway for me was that they don’t all have to be polished records. You don’t need to get something perfect; sometimes it’s about the humility of it, the purity of it. That stuck with me.
Sam has a speaking line in the movie. Did you play rock, paper, scissors for that?
That was interesting. Scott was like, “Hey, we’re gonna shoot this scene, you’re leaving (the Stone Pony) with Bruce. You want to hang out, maybe play next week. Just shoot the shit. Make up the lines” — improvise, basically. We had no idea what we were we gonna say. It was me and Jay and Sam, and (Cooper) was like, “Action! We’re rolling,” and we were just flying by the seat of our pants. Whatever came out came out. I don’t know what made the film yet.
You’re going from the film to back on the road with Mirador in Europe. Are you happy with the way things are going for that band?
It’s been really incredible. I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the response — and so immediately as well. The shows are sold out. There’s that kind of intensity and fuel that has fanned the fire of Mirador in someways that’s really elevated the band and the performances. It’s happening with leaps and bounds rather than inching its way forward. So I’m quite happy with it — astounded, actually. We’ll probably record another record within the year, or next year. Definitely between Greta and Mirador, there’s a lot going on.
What’s next for Greta?
This next year is going to be exciting and filled to the brim with surprises. There’s something stirring. The curtain will fall and the black smoke will rise and… that’s all I can say right now.
Bruce Springsteen is opening up about his upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 75-year-old rock icon shared his thoughts on director Scott Cooper’s upcoming film, which is set to hit theaters on Oct. 24.
Though Springsteen’s touring schedule limited his time on set, he said The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White and the crew were gracious during his visits.
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“Jeremy Allen White was very, very tolerant of me the days that I would appear on the set,” Springsteen told the publication. “I said to him, ‘Look, anytime I’m in the way, just give me the look and I’m on my way home.’ So the days that I got out there, he was wonderfully tolerant with me being there. And it was just fun. It was enjoyable.”
Still, The Boss admitted that he avoided being present for certain emotionally intense moments during filming.
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“I mean, there’s some unusualness to it because the movie involves, in some ways, some of the most painful days of my life,” he said. “If there was a scene coming up that was sometimes really deeply personal, I wanted the actors to feel completely free, and I didn’t want to get in the way, and so I would just stay at home.”
Deliver Me From Nowhere is based on Warren Zanes’ book of the same name and chronicles the making of Springsteen’s 1982 acoustic album, Nebraska. Check out a recap of the film’s first trailer here.
The film features Allen as Springsteen, Jeremy Strong as longtime manager Jon Landau, Stephen Graham as the musician’s father, Odessa Young as his girlfriend, Gaby Hoffmann as his mother, Marc Maron as producer Chuck Plotkin, and David Krumholtz as a Columbia Records executive.
Earlier this year, Springsteen told SiriusXM’s E Street Radio that seeing White play him on screen took some getting used to.
“A little bit at first, but you get over that pretty quick and Jeremy is such a terrific actor that you just fall right into it,” he said. “He’s got an interpretation of me that I think the fans will deeply recognize and he’s just done a great job, so I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of fun being on the set when I can get there.”
For his part, White has said he spent hours studying video footage and worked closely with a vocal coach to capture Springsteen’s unique voice and cadence.
Jonathan Daviss, an actor who broke out as a star for Netflix’s Outer Banks series, has been cast as Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus in an upcoming biopic. The biopic will be directed by Craig Brewer, and Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Pictures is listed as one of the producers for the project.
Deadline exclusively reports that Jonathan Daviss, 25, was cast shortly after Brewer was named as the biopic’s director. Brewer broke out as a director for his 2005 film, Hustle & Flow, and also directed Dolemite Is My Name starring Eddie Murphy, along with Coming 2 America, also starring Murphy.
The untitled biopic will examine Snoop Dogg’s rise from his early days in Long Beach, Calif., to linking with Dr. Dre and Death Row Records, ahead of his current status as a pop culture icon. The film is the first project to emerge from Death Row Pictures’ ongoing deal with NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. This extends Snoop’s longstanding partnership with NBCUniversal as the Doggfather will return as a judge for the 28th season of The Voice.
A release date for the biopic has not been announced.
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Rosetta Tharpe was a trailblazing Black musician who found fame early on as a gospel artist before shifting to rock and roll and inspiring several future legends. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has been tapped to pen a script for a biopic about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, with legendary rocker Mick Jagger serving as a producer.
Deadline reports that the Sister Rosetta Tharpe biopic was set in motion after Live Nation Productions reached out to Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor to piece together the script. Along with Jagger’s Jagged Films, the film is also being produced by Tribeca Studios and Inaudible Productions.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe emerged on the music scene first in the world of gospel, releasing her first recordings at the age of 23 in 1938. One of the singles, “Rock Me,” would become a hit and influenced the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard, among others.
Tharpe would mix gospel lyrics with secular music, which angered some. She went on to perform her mix of gospel and rhythm and blues, all accented by her guitar playing. The image of a Black woman singing gospel music inside secular establishments, along with her chosen instrument, caused many to not support her musical endeavors despite her quietly influencing future musical superstars along the way.
In interviews, Thapre essentially framed rock and roll as rhythm and blues at a faster pace. Sister Rosetta Tharpe passed away in 1973, but was acknowledged by her peers as a pioneering voice for rock and roll.
Along with the biopic, there will be a documentary about Tharpe centering on her contributions to music and her lasting influence, most especially in the world of guitars. The film will also pull from author Gayle Wald’s Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe biography.
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Fans will have to wait a little bit longer for the Michael Jackson biopic. The project has been pushed to 2026.
Variety is reporting that the forthcoming project detailing Michael Jackson’s life will not be released until next year. According to the report, Michael will most likely be split into two parts thus the need to reschedule the premiere date (originally Oct. 3). To no surprise, this project has been in the making for time. In 2019, Deadline reported that producer Graham King of Bohemian Rhapsody fame had secured the rights from the estate to Michael Jackson’s life story and access to his music catalog. John Logan (Gladiator) was tapped to write the screenplay.
Fast forward to 2022, Lionsgate was announced as the studio to distribute the film. The following year, Antoine Fuqua was appointed as director and principal casting followed shortly after. Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, is set to make his debut playing the iconic performer. The project will also feature several accomplished actors including Nia Long (Katherine Jackson), Colman Domingo (Joe Jackson) and Larenz Tate (Motown Records founder). Filming commenced in January 2024 and wrapped up that June.
In an interview with Variety Colman Domingo detailed his approach about playing Michael’s father, Joseph. “I had to go on the inside and find out everything that I love about Joe Jackson: what his tools were for survival in the world, the tools that he gave to his children, whether it was the way he reared his children or being from where he was, I want to examine all of that.”
Lionsgate has yet to confirm report from Deadline.
Alt-rock greats Pavement are getting the biopic treatment, but the newest trailer for the upcoming film advertises that the project is less classic biopic and more “museum,” “movie” and a “reunion.”
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In the nearly three-minute clip for Pavements, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery stars as frontman Stephen Malkmus. “It’s good for my career, maybe win an award or something,” Keery jokes at one point in the video about why he took on the role. “I can’t play Billy Joel.”
The trailer also features Nat Wolff as Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg, Fred Hechinger as Bob Nastanovich, Logan Miller as Mark Ibold, Griffin Newman as Steve West, and Jason Schwartzman as Matador Records’ Chris Lombardi.
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“Pavements is a movie about Pavement the band—among other things,” the official film description reads. “The latest film from acclaimed director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) is a documentary that may or may not be entirely true, may or may not be totally sincere, and may or may not be more about the idea of the band—or any band—than a history of the short-lived, passionately loved, commercially marginal Nineties American alternative group Pavement. This unconventional film about a highly unconventional band incorporates a stage musical, rock biopic, gallery exhibition, archival footage, and contemporary observational footage to create a film as irreducible, uncharacterizable, and entertaining as the band and its music.”
The real-life California band were active from 1989 until 1999, releasing a total of five albums, including 1992’s Slanted and Enchanted, 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and 1997’s Brighten the Corners, which gave the group their highest-charting U.S. release when it hit No. 70 on the Billboard 200. Their final album was 1999’s Major Leagues.
In December, Kannberg revealed in an interview with the Kreative Kontrol podcast that the Pavements soundtrack will also feature the first new song from the band in more than 25 years. “There will be a new Pavement song on the soundtrack, that’s all I’m going to give you,” he explained. “I just heard a mix of it today, and it’s pretty good. It’s not a big deal, it’s just cool because it’s something different and it’s a song that we all kind of loved playing.”
Pavements will hit theaters nationwide on June 6. Watch the new trailer below.
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The musical biopic on Pharrell Williams’ life as a child might never see the light of day. He has confirmed that the film has been scrapped.
As spotted on Variety the multi-hyphenate is putting the brakes on what would have been his newest big screen project. On Friday, Feb. 7 he and director Michel Gondry provided the entertainment magazine a formal statement on the status of Golden. “When all of us got into the editing room we collectively decided there wasn’t a path forward to tell the version of this story that we originally envisioned,” it read. “We appreciate all the hard work of the talented cast and crew. While we’re disappointed we can’t deliver this film, we have incredible partners at Universal and will collaborate in a different capacity again soon.”
Golden was set to capture Pharrell Williams’ childhood by combining music and story telling. During pre-production he described the project as “a coming-of-age story about self-discovery and pursuing your dreams, but it’s so much more magical than that. It’s a celebration of Black life, Black culture, and most importantly, Black joy.” It featured an all-star cast of talent including Janelle Monáe, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Halle, Bailey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Brian Tyree Henry and Quinta Brunson.
It is unclear what Universal Pictures will do with footage and soundtrack.
Ariana Grande is no stranger to the law of attraction, as she points out in her song “Just Like Magic” and as seen in a 2011 tweet in which she predicted she’d portray Glinda in Wicked one day. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Before Grande was […]
Timothée Chalamet channeled Bob Dylan‘s blonde-haired look at the New York premiere of his upcoming biopic.
During the premiere of A Complete Unknown at New York’s SVA Theater on Friday (Dec. 13), the 28-year-old actor paid tribute to the folk icon by recreating Dylan’s style from a 2003 Sundance Film Festival event.
Dressed in a light blue beanie, black leather coat, gray patterned scarf, red flannel shirt and sporting dyed blonde bangs, Chalamet’s ensemble closely mirrored a look Dylan wore to the Masked and Anonymous movie screening more than two decades ago.
A Complete Unknown, which hits theaters on Christmas Day (Dec. 25), stars Chalamet as a younger version of Dylan. The film also features Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton.
Earlier this month, Dylan himself took to X (formerly Twitter) to give the film his stamp of approval.
“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role,” the legendary musician wrote. “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me. The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric — a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ’60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”
“Floored,” Chalamet tweeted in response. “I am so grateful. Thank you, Bob.”
Also starring Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy, the biographical drama is inspired by Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric. Director James Mangold revealed that Dylan personally provided feedback on the script.
Fans first spotted Chalamet filming in New York earlier this year. The Wonka actor has said he’s been honing his portrayal of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer for years, working with a movement coach, taking a “spirit-gathering” road trip to Dylan’s early stomping grounds, and training with a harmonica coach for five years to master the singer-songwriter’s signature style.
