Cameron Crowe hasn’t directed a film in almost ten years, but that will likely change in the coming weeks as the filmmaker is prepping to shoot his next project.
Crowe is set to direct a biopic of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell which could start production as early as December. He’s also found the actress that will play Mitchell during the later part of the singer’s career, and it’s none other than Meryl Streep.
Streep hasn’t appeared in a film since 2021’s “Don’t Look Up,” and that was very much a supporting role. She’s been mostly doing television with HULU’s “Only Murders in the Building.” The 21-time Oscar nominee is about to come back to portray Mitchell in what will be a much-anticipated biopic and Crowe’s return to the big screen.
In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Crowe gives an update on the project, and even shares a potential release date.
"I'm super-excited. We're going to start in by the end of this year and hopefully have it done for Christmas next year," he said. "It's Joni's life, not through anybody else's prism. It's through her prism. It's the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don't know. And the music is so cinematic."
Crowe added that he and his team have done their research, ensuring they get all of the facts straight in telling the legendary Mitchell’s life story.
"I found a lot of the people from her early life, a lot of them are still alive," he explained. "We've talked to them and what it was like to know Joni back then, as opposed to now. She's the same girl from Saskatoon, you know? She's got a lot of will and grit. It's a life with a tale worth telling, filled with great music — and I get out of the way."
In the ‘80s, ‘90s’ and ‘00s, Crowe was this highly successful writer-director, his filmography includes the likes of “Say Anything,” “Singles,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous,” and “Vanilla Sky.” Then he struck out with 2005’s “Elizabethtown,” 2011’s “We Bought A Zoo” and his last film, 2015’s “Aloha.”
That losing streak was more than enough to have him take a break from Hollywood, or was it the other way around? If you remember, for many years, Crowe had been trying to develop a biopic about Marvin Gaye, though it eventually fell apart due to casting and financing issues.
The Mitchell biopic is a deeply personal project for Crowe, a former Rolling Stone journalist in the ‘70s, who famously interviewed Mitchell in 1979, and has remained close friends with the singer over the years. They’ve been working on the script together for the better part of three years — the untitled film is said to not be a traditional biopic.
It’s akin to an autobiography in the sense that Mitchell has had input on Crowe’s script and been eager to help him tell her story, as the two have come to trust each other over the years.
An actress has also, apparently, been found to play the younger Mitchell, but no word yet on who that person might be. Here’s hoping it’s Anya Taylor-Joy who would be great playing Joni in her peak years.
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