ABC/Randy HolmesA new documentary about founding Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson — featuring interviews with Bruce Springsteen and Elton John — is expected to be completed by January 2019, Variety reports.
The as-yet-untitled film is being directed by Brent Wilson, who included Brian in his 2017 doo-wop documentary Streetlight Harmonies.
For the upcoming movie, Brent gathered about 90 hours of new footage of Brian discussing his life and music with Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine. Most of the conversations were shot “Carpool Karaoke” style, as Brian and Jason drove around L.A. visiting sites of significance to Wilson and The Beach Boys.
“Seventy-five percent of what is in the film is Brian,” Brent tells Variety, “and then we were really selective about who we wanted to appear in the film, using people like Springsteen, Elton and [My Morning Jacket frontman] Jim James to reinforce the themes.”
The director says he felt Springsteen was especially important to include in the movie because of the many parallels between Bruce’s and Brian’s lives.
“Bruce was really 10 miles in from the Jersey Shore, even though he kind of made up that Jersey Shore scene,” Brent explains.
“Brian created that West Coast beach sound, but…he doesn’t surf, and Hawthorne [California], even though it’s only five miles from the beach, it’s a thousand miles from the beach. And they both had situations with fathers, when they grew up…They’re the same guy. They really are!”
Other musicians who appear in the film include pop star Nick Jonas, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons.
The movie is among the first projects from Ley Line, a new production company founded by respective film- and music-industry veterans Tim Headington and Theresa Steele Page.
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