Back To Buckley

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So suddenly everybody's saying that Robert Pattinson (sigh) and James Franco (maybe) are "battling it out" for the role of one of my very favorite musicians Jeff Buckley in the long-delayed bio-pic. I had to do some scouring to find out where this information originally came from - I saw it first at JJ but he didn't offer any source to back it up - but eventually I worked my way through the links to find this story at DigitalSpy (not the most reliable source themselves) which gave up where the story began.

"Robert Pattinson and James Franco are among the stars eager to play Jeff Buckley in the proposed biopic of the late singer-songwriter.

According to a report in Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper, producers Michelle Sy (Finding Neverland) and Orion Williams (Control) are overseeing the project with Buckley's mother Mary Guibert. Ryane Jeffe has been commissioned to write the movie, which is also attracting interest from Jared Leto and James Marsden.

Guibert revealed that the actor portraying her son, who drowned tragically in 1997, will have to sing and play his own instruments for the role.

"Whoever gets the part will need a lot of self-discipline because they won't be able to fake it," she said. "It's going to take a phenomenal set of skills."

Brad Pitt had previously attempted to make a film about Buckley's life, but the project fell apart when Guibert rejected two script drafts from British writer Emma Forrest.

Buckley experienced a surge in popularity last year when his version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' made it to number two on the UK charts at the time of X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's release of the same track."

We'll see what comes of this. I'm still not sold on Pattinson (although to be fair I've only seen him as Cedric Diggory, and he was fine there) and he doesn't really feel like he's got the look right for Jeff... Franco could maybe do it but he's playing a few too many sensitive poet types these days, isn't he? I guess he evens it out with all the stoner roles though. I'm not sure who I would cast anymore. You can click on Jeff's label at the bottom of this post to see how I've been following this movie's progress forever and ever now... it really would be great to have his wonderful music pushed back into the cultural forefront again even if only for a bit. Something besides his damned cover of "Hallelujah" at least! God I love that song but will be happy if I never hear it again in my entire life.
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