Neon has landed the rights to release “Moonage Daydream,” a new feature film, concert documentary and “experiential cinematic odyssey” that follows David Bowie’s life and musical career and is the first sanctioned by Bowie’s estate.
Brett Morgen is directing the film that is near completion and will feature Bowie’s own narration. Neon will release “Moonage Daydream” domestically, while Universal Pictures Content Group will release the film internationally, and HBO Documentary Films has North American rights for streaming and cable in spring 2023.
The film was designed from conception as a unique cinematic experience and will also be released in IMAX in select markets. The film will also be released in partnership with Public Road Productions, BMG, Live Nation Productions, and HBO Documentary Films.
“Moonage Daydream” illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie with a project that shows how Bowie himself worked across several disciplines, not just music and film but also dance, painting, sculpture, video and audio collage, screenwriting, acting, and live theatre.
The film reveals the celebrated icon through his own voice and features 48 musical tracks, mixed from their original stems.
Morgen was granted access to Bowie’s archives by his estate in 2017 and presented him with master recordings as well as never-before-seen 35mm and 16mm reels of never-before-seen performances, all of which will appear on screen for the first time. In addition, all music in the film has been remixed from the original stems into Dolby Atmos, 12.0, 5.0, and 7.1/5.1.
“Moonage Daydream” is written, directed, edited, and produced by Morgen. The film’s executive producers are Hartwig Masuch, Kathy Rivkin-Daum and Justus Haerder for BMG; Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, and Ryan Kroft for Live Nation Productions; Bill Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Aisha Cohen, and Eileen D’Arcy from RZO; Billy Gerber, and Debra Eisenstadt. BMG and Live Nation Productions financed the film.
Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend and music producer Tony Visconti also worked on the film alongside sound mixer Paul Massey and David Giammarco, sound design team of John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone and VFX Producer Stefan Nadelman, who worked with Morgen on his film “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.”
The title “Moonage Daydream” references David Bowie’s eponymous song from the influential 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” which introduced the world to his iconic, gender-bending, and groundbreaking stage persona, Ziggy Stardust.
NEON’s Jeff Deutchman negotiated the North America deal with Kevin Koloff, as well as Karen Gottlieb of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, P.C. Submarine and WME handled sales for “Moonage Daydream.” + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + Stay tuned for further details shortly.
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shooky
Posted: 14th Apr 2022, 5:47 am
Posts: 2910Location: takasaki, japanJoined: 28th May, 2008
"never-before-seen 35mm and 16mm reels of never-before-seen performances, all of which will appear on screen for the first time"
As we see in the trailer, Brett Morgen had unlimited access to all the material that is on youtube and also those that have already been released on dvd.
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maarten
Posted: 25th May 2022, 12:16 pm
Site AdminPosts: 1657Location: Nijmegen, NetherlandsJoined: 5th Dec, 2007
Lots of press about the doc is appearing. Some interviews with Brett Morgan as well.
Two snippets I found that mention some of the archive material in the movie and the archive:
I will say this – and this will be of some significance for Bowie fans. I made a decision, partly because of IMAX and the need for high-end visuals, that I could not use performances unless I had the camera outs [ie, the complete footage from all cameras]. That’s why Starman is not in the film, because I would be taking a clip from a TV show.” It’s also why there’s nothing, say, from Bowie’s 2000 Glastonbury set. “Because Glastonbury won’t license the original footage! I’m a filmmaker – I have to make it my own.”
There are whole shows Morgen has had the great privilege of sitting through, alone, at his editing suite, including the legendary Diamond Dogs tour from 1974, and its follow-up, the so-called Soul Tour, when Bowie threw away his set-list and went back on the road. “I had no idea there was any footage in existence. And all of a sudden I’m watching this, and thinking, ‘How long is this going to go on?!’”
The quality hasn’t always met the threshold for these performances to make the cut, though sections have. (Devotees will probably want to keep their eyes peeled when Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me comes on.)
Still, Morgen’s inner fan was in heaven. The director had heard rumors about Bowie taping the Philadelphia show of his Diamond Dogs tour with two cameras, supposedly just so he could see how the performance was playing onstage from the audience’s point of view. One afternoon, he suddenly found himself watching the fabled show by himself in a screening room, “knowing that it was too grainy to blow up to IMAX and feeling selfish that I was likely the first person to watch this in 50 years — and the only person who’d get to see it.
“What blew my mind, however, was the next bit that comes up,” he continues, “and it’s the Soul tour. After Bowie started the Diamond Dogs tour, he got to L.A. and decided that he wanted to do more of an R&B, gospel type of show. So he throws the set list away, goes back on the road, and goes across America with Luther Vandross as his backup singer and Mike Garson as his musical director. If you like Young Americans, it’s essentially the Young Americans tour, right? And he’d recorded two full shows, one in Buffalo and one in Washington D.C. It was like the Holy Grail. I said, ‘I don’t care if they might look bad in IMAX — some of this is going into the fucking film one way or the other.'”
So regarding 74 video - there's the Philly video, but also Buffalo and Washington...
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mark1978
Posted: 26th May 2022, 7:55 am
Posts: 169Joined: 24th Feb, 2009
Amazing to hear proper confirmation that this 1974 footage definitely exists. Shame he decided against using it on grounds of resolution, when most of us will end up watching this film on laptop screens anyway!
Hopefully it'll make its way out within the next few years regardless....
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