You might remember the minor furor last year that erupted when the David Bowie biopic Stardust landed unceremoniously on VOD, which served to illustrate one point: When it comes to depicting Bowie on screen, well, there’s no beating the real deal. The Thin White Duke had a lengthy career in film and was pretty goddamn amazing in a ton of projects, and it’s telling that the first major project endorsed by the Bowie Estate isn’t anything attempting to dramatize his life. That film’s a documentary titled Moonage Daydream, directed by Brett Morgan (best known for creating Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck for HBO), and NEON dropped a trailer for the project ahead of its festival premiere. In short: Whoa.
Take a look:
Here’s a lengthy description of the project straight from NEON:
“With ‘Moonage Daydream,’ Brett Morgen (‘The Kid Stays in the Picture,’ ‘Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,’ ‘Jane’) presents a genre defying immersion into the art and sounds of David Bowie. Considered one of the greatest artists of our time, David Bowie has been moving culture for over 50 years. ‘Moonage Daydream’ is the first film to be supported by the David Bowie Estate, which granted Morgen unprecedented access to their collection. Told through sublime, kaleidoscopic imagery, personal archive footage, unseen performances, and anchored by David Bowie’s own music and words, ‘Moonage Daydream’ invites audiences to immerse themselves in the unique world that is ‘Bowie’. In 2017, the estate presented Morgen with over 5 million assets. Included in the collection were rare and never-before-seen drawings, recordings, films, and journals.
Morgen spent four years assembling the film and another 18 months designing the soundscape, animations, and color pallet. For the film, the sound team, featuring Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend, and music producer Tony Visconti and Academy Award-winning sound mixer Paul Massey (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) remixed and translated Bowie’s original stems for a theatrical environment that will be presented in 12.0, 5.0, Atmos, and 7.1/5.1. Throughout his career, across generations, Bowie taught us that our differences were our strengths. With ‘Moonage Daydream,’ Bowie provides us with a roadmap of how to survive the 21st century, inviting audiences to celebrate his legacy and enduring influence like never before.”
Moonage Daydream premieres at Cannes this week, but it’ll fall to Earth (well, the whole of it) in September, when it’ll hit theaters and IMAX screens across the world.