The boom of the music biopic

In the flashy new feature I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Naomie Ackie becomes the latest actor to take on the life of an icon - and she is just one of many starring in big budget musical biopics this year. Recently Austin Butler transformed into Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s extravagant, glittering ode to the star, and soon we can expect Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, while Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King is set to oversee the new Michael Jackson movie. Production companies are scrambling to slate these films and clearly there’s an appetite here, but why are audiences craving this nostalgic leap into past lives of singing stardom?

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic

There is undoubtably less mystery and untouchability surrounding pop culture figures today. Mass social media saturation and the pressure for celebrities to share everything with their fans has removed an alluring deity that was attached to 20th century stars. When we switch on our phones we can see into Lizzo’s sitting room as she joins the latest Tiktok craze, or watch Billie Eilish’s skin care routine. Pop stars now ‘tell all’ online and thus there is a bygone air of mystique around celebrity which causes us to crave older, more dramatic stories that satisfy our curiosity about the hidden lives of the untouchables.

Perhaps the most likely reason for the genre’s popularity, though, is its the escapist potentials as a nostalgia trip. Escaping into colourful, glitzy stories about much-loved icons of increasingly distant decades - and dancing along to their greatest hits - becomes a remedy for this discomfort with the now. The music biopic in particular provides distraction from the present through the guaranteed musical immersion - hearing classic hits pumped through surround-sound systems alongside the image on screen has comforting and uplifting effect, and evokes fully the atmosphere of decades past.

Indeed, biopics aside, filmmakers are being drawn ever-more to escapist 20th century period settings, most recently with Noah Baumbach’s absurd existentialist White Noise, set in the ‘80s. Similarly, the plot of Edgar Wright’s last feature Last Night In Soho dives into the dual glamour and darkness 1960s London before the Summer of Love and explores the alluring escapism of nostalgia. Wright explained in an interview with Variety that the film reflected on “the idea that retreating into the past seems like a failure to deal with the present day.” He also explained that his own obsession with the 60s “started was my parents’ record collection” - music is a gateway to this escape, and here the musical biopic can play its hand. Perhaps these anxieties with the present are driving the boom of the biographical genre.

The most exciting upcoming music biopics to look out for:

1. Fever

Oscar-winning director Todd Haynes (The Darkest Hour, Carol) will be returning to the biopic after his experimental Bob Dylan film I’m Not There. With Fever, Haynes is taking on the life of Peggy Lee with production from Reese Witherspoon, and Michelle Williams starring (who is also soon to appear in Kelly Reichardt’s much anticipated story of an artist in Showing Up).

Anyone who has seen Hayne’s Carol will observe how perfectly the soft, richly textured Super 16mm photography of 1950s milieu in the film transposes onto the mid-century setting of Lee’s story, making it an exciting new project. Billie Eilish, who has lauded the 50s singer as a key inspiration throughout her career, is also rumoured to be involved, perhaps even as producer. With this team behind it, the film is certainly one to look forward to.

2. Going Electric

Timothee Chalamet will be singing on screen for the first time in this new take on Bob Dylan’s life directed by James Mangold (Ford vs Ferrari). Still in development, there might still be a significant wait for the film, however Chalamet has confirmed his role in the production and has reportedly been thoroughly researching Dylan’s life, even spending time living in Woodstock.

Marisa Abela and Eddy Marsan as Amy and Mitch Winehouse on the set of Back To Black

3. Back To Black

Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson is currently shooting the new dramatisation of the life of Amy Winehouse. In the titular role is emerging star Marisa Abela, with Jack O’Connell as the soul icon’s abusive husband Blake Fielder-Civil, in an exquisite piece of casting by Nina Gold - O’Connell can flit between rugged and threatening with minuscule twitches in expression, making him a walking mimicry of the enticing yet dangerous sultry lover in Winehouse’s confessional songs.

The film will focus on the career of the R&B powerhouse and her toxic relationship, leading to her notorious spiralling with substance abuse. Johnson’s direction will likely imbue the film with a swoony and sensual mood to reflect Amy’s smooth and visceral sound.

4. Faithfull

Lucy Boynton will return to the genre (having starred in Bohemian Rhapsody as Mary Austin), but this time in the lead role as Marianne Faithfull. Set in the swinging 60s, the film will be based on Faithful’s 1994 autobiography and will follow her rise to rock aristocracy, her famed relationship with Mick Jagger and her experiences with heroine addiction, homelessness and recovery.

Faithfull will reevaluate the way that the media have historically assessed Faithfull’s life, taking a feminist lens to the life of someone whose achievements were overlooked and minimised because of their gender. Boynton explained in an interview with NME that “the media cast her…as the ‘girlfriend of’. They played up the slightly more salacious sides of those stories or cast her as a young, angelic virginal thing. [This film] is an interesting look at how women were seen at the time and how women are used by the media.”

Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny as the Presleys on the set of Priscilla

5. Priscilla

Cinema is not finished with the Presleys yet - Sofia Coppola’s new project focuses on the life of singer, actress and wife of Elvis, Priscilla Presley. The film will star Eurphoria’s Jacob Elordi as Elvis and Mare Of Easttown star Cailee Spaeny in the lead role. Sofia Coppola has been posting sneak peak photos allowing a glimpse into the research and shooting of the film and, given the director’s experience with female-centred stories (Lost In Translation, On The Rocks) we can expect an interesting new perspective on the life of the Presleys. It will be released this year and will be an interesting companion piece to Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis.

6. Michael

Produced by Bohemian Rhapsody’s Graham King and with writing credits from three-time Oscar nominee John Logan, the new film about the King of Pop has many starry names attached. Approved by the Jackson estate, one may question how the film will handle the multiple allegations of child abuse that have been brought against Jackson. According to a press release announcing the distribution deal, ‘Michael’ will “bring to life Jackson’s most iconic performances as it gives an informed insight into the entertainer’s artistic process and complicated personal life.”