After a failed attempt at getting a Marvin Gaye biopic off the ground, filmmaker Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) has spent the better part of a decade trying to bring a Joni Mitchell movie to life.
But momentum is finally building. In a recent New York Times interview for his upcoming memoir “The Uncool,” Crowe revealed the film is scheduled to shoot next year. Asked about long-running rumors that Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Story) and Meryl Streep were attached, Crowe wouldn’t deny it—but he wouldn’t confirm either. “Can’t confirm that. I wish I could,” he said.
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Crowe has known Mitchell since the 1970s, when he first interviewed her as a teenage writer at Rolling Stone, and says she was always his best subject. “I am friends with Joni Mitchell. Proudly. In the best way. She was my best interview at Rolling Stone. The ’79 interview that we did when she was putting out the “Mingus” album was, by far, the best interview I did there.”
He explained that the structure of the film came to him in a dream, and he interviewed her extensively—more than any other artist he’s ever talked to—for the project. “We’re going to make it next year. There’s not a lot I can say about it. Soon I’ll be able to speak more definitively about who’s in it and how we’re gonna do it and everything. I actually had a dream of a structure for how to tell that story. So I called her place and told her right-hand person that I’d had this dream, and if somebody comes knocking, come to me first, and I’ll tell you this idea, and we’ll see what happens. She’s like: ‘They’re knocking all the time, and Joni wonders why you’ve taken so long to call. So yes, come over and tell us what your idea is.’ This was about four and a half years ago. Joni said, ‘Let’s spend every Monday night. You come over here, and we’ll talk. You ask me anything you want.’ So that’s what I’ve been doing all this time. It’s been incredibly inspiring — the most I’ve interviewed anybody, the deepest-tissue kind of conversations I’ve had with any artist, and I’ve found it invigorating and can’t wait to make the movie.”
Crowe stressed that what makes the film unique is its perspective. “Her life from her point of view. Everybody’s kind of phobic about the term ‘biopic,’ but a biographical story about somebody should give you the feeling — like, a Joni Mitchell movie should feel like a Joni Mitchell album. Be good to the people who have been there as fans all along. That’s the best road to telling a biographical story about a musician. That’s the Joni Mitchell dream.”
He added, “I think the Joni Mitchell movie is exactly the right story to be telling right now. So it’s one long adventure that I’m very proud of.” Watch the NY Times Interview podcast with Crowe below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2007. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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