Jeff Buckley movie biopic announced & lead actor revealed
The film will feature Jeff Buckley's music
A movie biopic about the late-great Jeff Buckley called Everybody Here Wants You is in the works.
Named after the Jeff Buckley track ‘Everybody Here Wants You’, which appeared on his posthumous 1998 album ‘Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk’, the film stars 37-year-old actor Reeve Carney in the lead role.
Carney, who bears a striking resemblance to Buckley, shot to fame when he played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway, and he has stared in films including House of Gucci, Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, Penny Dreadful and Hadestown.
The movie will mark the directorial debut of Orian Williams, and filming is set to start in the autumn ahead of its release by Culmination Productions.
According to Variety, Everybody Here Wants You has received the full blessing of Jeff Buckley’s family and unlike recent David Bowie film Stardust, it will feature the singer’s music.
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Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, will produce the film alongside Culmination Productions’ Tom Butterfield and Alison Raykovich, manager of his estate and VP of Jeff Buckley Music.
Mary Guibert said in a statement: “This will be the only official dramatisation of Jeff’s story which I can promise his fans will be true to him and to his legacy. Thankfully, my determination to assemble all the right participants, no matter how long it took, is about to culminate in the best way possible.”
Director Orian Williams comments: “I’m honoured to have the opportunity to step into the director’s seat to tell Jeff’s story. Dionne Jones’ beautiful script brings together all the elements of Jeff’s life into one intimate and visual story.”
Richard Story, president, commercial music group, Sony Music Entertainment, adds: “Jeff Buckley was a once-in-a-lifetime artist whose music touched people’s hearts and changed their lives. Sony Music has been honored to bring Jeff’s music to the world and now, ‘Everybody Here Wants You’ is providing a unique opportunity to introduce Jeff to a whole new generation of fans.”
Jeff Buckley died by drowning on the evening of 29th May 1997 when he went for a swim in Wolf River Harbour in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 30 years old.
In his lifetime, Buckley released just one studio album – the seminal 1994 masterpiece ‘Grace’.