Early last year, there were reports circulating about Almost Famous filmmaker Cameron Crowe working on a biopic about his friend and one of our foremost CanCon luminaries, Joni Mitchell. Crowe has now offered an update on the project, saying they're hoping to be able to have it finished by next Christmas.
In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, the director expressed his excitement about the film, adding, "We're going to start in by the end of this year and hopefully have it done for Christmas next year."
Crowe went on to draw comparisons between the recently re-released Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers film, Heartbreakers Beach Party, which he directed back in 1983. "You know, similarly to Heartbreakers Beach Party, 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."
"I found a lot of the people from her early life, a lot of them are still alive," he explained of his dedication to getting the details about Mitchell's life right for the movie. "We've talked to them about 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, just like Heartbreakers Beach Party," he laughed.
Over the weekend, Mitchell played her first headlining concert in Los Angeles, CA, in over 28 years at the Hollywood Bowl. Highlights from that included her saying "Fuck Donald Trump," as well as palling around with "the gay mafia" — Brandi Carlile, Elton John, Chappell Roan and Lucy Dacus among them — backstage.