The 63rd New York Film Festival will screen Scott Cooper’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” The Bruce Springstren biopic will screen in the Spotlight section.
Despite Variety’s headline claiming this is a “world premiere,” that’s not accurate — the film’s actual first screening will take place at Telluride during the last week of August. Nowhere on the NYFF site is it labeled as a WP, and you can bet they would have made that clear if it were.
Cooper’s film is said to be a moody, brooding portrayal of Springsteen during his Nebraska period, with Jeremy Allen White stepping into The Boss’s boots. Gloomy Americana, partly shot in black-and-white, apparently.
‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ stars White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser and Stephen Graham. It’s being positioned by 20th Century as an awards contender, having set up an October 24, 2025 release date.
The “Nebraska” story might just be the most fascinating time period of Springsteen’s career. During that time, the singer was going through a severe bout of depression and anxiety — he just didn’t know it. He created art through it, battling his inner demons by recording the spooky “Nebraska” tracks with a home recorder, alone in a bedroom, a “matter of months from a breakdown.”
The film is based off of Warren Zanes’ excellent “Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska,” an incredible book that tried to enter itself deep inside the mind of Springsteen as he was battling his inner demons and recording his “accidental” masterpiece.
Cooper is coming off 2022’s Edgar Allen Poe Film, “The Pale Blue Eye.” His other directing credits include “Crazy Heart,” “Black Mass,” “Hostiles,” and “Out of the Furnace” — Cooper admitted he was obsessively listening to “Nebraska” while writing the latter.