Cameron Crowe has offered an update on the Joni Mitchell biopic he’s directing.
The filmmaker and lifelong Joni Mitchell fan was originally revealed to have been secretly working on the film in 2023, and now, he’s offered some more details in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock. “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.
He compared it to his recently-unearthed-and-completed 1983 Tom Petty documentary Heartbreakers Beach Party, saying “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 elaborated, claiming he and his team has been conducting thorough research. “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, just like Heartbreakers Beach Party. [Laughs].”
Crowe didn’t provide any details as far as casting or the periods of Mitchell’s life that will be depicted. Still, it’s a good time to be a Joni Mitchell fan — she just performed her first Los Angeles concerts in 24 years with two star-studded “Joni Jam” sets at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend. Guests included Meryl Streep, who was rumored to play an older version of Mitchell in Crowe’s biopic, Elton John (the two performed “I’m Still Standing” together), as well as Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Annie Lennox, Robin Pecknold, and many more.
Meanwhile, Mitchell released a new archival box set earlier this month. The Asylum Years (1976-1980) collected material from the era spanning 1976’s Hejira, 1977’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, her 1979 collaboration with Charles Mingus (titled Mingus), her 1980 live album Shadows and Light, and more.
