The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White and Succession’s Jeremy Strong have teamed up on new film about Bruce Springsteen.
White will play the Boss while Strong will play his manager, Jon Landau, and Stephen Graham will play Springsteen’s dad, Douglas Springsteen with whom the singer-songwriter had a complicated relationship.
The film will follow Bruce Springsteen on his journey to make his sixth album Nebraska, which was a departure from his previous work and one representing the Boss at his most stripped-down and personal.
Springsteen recorded Nebraska on a four-track cassette in his bedroom in New Jersey, just a few years before he and his E Street Band became a phenomenon with the song Born in the U.S.A.
The film, called Deliver Me from Nowhere, follows the making of the musician’s 1982 album.
Shooting scenes for the film began last month. It is being made in New York and New Jersey.
The film has been adapted from Warren Zanes’ book about the making of the musician’s album and is being directed by Scott Cooper.
Cooper’s previous films include Crazy Heart, which won Jeff Bridges a best actor Oscar for his performance as a washed-up country singer.
“Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska has profoundly shaped my artistic vision,” Cooper said.
“The album’s raw, unvarnished portrayal of life’s trials and resilience resonates deeply with me. Our film aims to capture that same spirit, bringing Warren Zanes’ compelling narrative of Bruce’s life to the screen with authenticity and hope, honouring Bruce’s legacy in a transformative cinematic experience.”
The project is the first biopic authorised by Springsteen, who himself had a cameo in the 2000 film High Fidelity as well as in the final series of Curb Your Enthusiasm and who has been the subject of a number of documentaries, including The Promise and Letter to You.
He also gave his approval to 2019 film Blinded By The Light, based on the memoir by Sarfraz Manzoor about his love of Springsteen’s music and growing up in Luton.
Deliver Me from Nowhere is expected to be released next autumn. It will follow the release of Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, whose transformation into the 60s-era Dylan has met with early acclaim.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime honour to be collaborating with Bruce Springsteen, an inspiring and incomparable artist who represents so much to so many,” said Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios president David Greenbaum. “The deep authenticity of his story is in great hands with my friend Scott Cooper, whom I am thrilled to be collaborating with once again.”
Nebraska was Springsteen’s follow-up to 1980’s The River.
The album was expected to be pure rock and roll, but instead, Springsteen delivered a collection of raw, stripped-down songs that were made on a four-track recorder.
Warren Zane’s book Deliver Me from Nowhere was released in 2003, long after Nebraska had been dubbed a classic.
While working on the book, Zane spoke with Springsteen about his creative process. He also interviewed artists like Rosanne Cash and Steven Van Zandt about their reactions to the record.
White will portray Springsteen, who was thirty-three years old when he recorded Nebraska.
“When I was a child and into my teens, I felt like a very, very empty vessel,” Springsteen said. “And it wasn’t until I began to fill it up with music that I began to feel my own personal power and my impact on my friends and the small world that I was in. I began to get some sense of myself. But it came out of a place of real emptiness. I made music for that kitchen. Go to Nebraska and listen to it.”
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