For the past decade, Jim Jarmusch has walked two paths in the entertainment industry. While he continues to be best known for his work as a filmmaker and music video director, Jarmusch also performs with producer Carter Logan under the name Sqürl, a self-described “enthusiastically marginal rock band from New York City” that has also collaborated on the soundtracks for Jarmusch’s last three films. But according to the director, only one of those roles may be part of his next project.
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At the 2023 Overlook Film Festival, Jarmusch sat down with Logan to discuss the tenth anniversary of “Only Lovers Left Alive,” his Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton-starring vampire movie that is considered among his best work. During that discussion, Jarmusch told The Playlist that he was preparing to shoot his next film in the fall — and, in a surprising twist for the director and Sqürl collaborator, the new film may feature no music whatsoever.
“The film we’re preparing now for late this year to shoot, probably, I think, may have no music,” he explained. “It’s a very subtle film; it’s very quiet. And I think music could move it too much one way — it’s a funny and sad film, right? It sort of has both woven in. I don’t know if I wanna have music to add some other thing over it. It doesn’t really want it so far.”
That’s all Jarmusch would allow, as the filmmaker was tight-lipped on further details. So far, no other details seem to have trickled out, and the only reports in recent years of the filmmaker’s work are commercials and music videos.
Jarmusch’s most recent film, “The Dead Don’t Die,” saw the director returning to his version of the horror genre after 2013’s “Only Lovers Left Alive.” While “The Dead Don’t Die” has been described as his most accessible work to date, the reviews were not as strong as with “Paterson,” his 2016 drama starring Adam Driver. The latter film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and Driver received accolades from several organizations – including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association – for his quiet performance as a New Jersey transit operator.