Cameron Crowe hasn’t directed a film in almost ten years (“Aloha”). Jeff Sneider is reporting that will likely change in the coming weeks.
Crowe is set to direct a biopic of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell which is planning to shoot in late summer/early fall. 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 mostly been doing television via 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 the ‘80s, ‘90s’ and ‘00s, Crowe was this highly successful writer-director with films such as “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 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 budget 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, quite literally becoming her assistant in recent years. They’ve been working on the script together for the better part of 3 years — it’s 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.
Sneider additionally reports that an actress has also been found to play the younger Mitchell, but no word yet on who that might be.