Jeff Buckley will be played by Reeve Carney in the film
(Picture: ES Composite)The latest addition to the long line of music biopics has been revealed, with a film charting the life and career of Jeff Buckley now in the works.
The film, titled Everybody Here Wants You after one of Buckley’s posthumously released tracks, will star Reeve Carney in the title role. The 37-year-old is best known for his work on Broadway, as well his forays into music and TV.
The biopic is set to be directed by Orian Williams, while Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, will be on board as a co-producer, as well as his cousin and manager of his estate, Alison Raykovich. That means the film will have full access to Buckley’s discography to use in the soundtrack.
“This will be the only official dramatisation of Jeff’s story, which I can promise his fans will be true to him and his legacy,” said Guibert. “Thankfully, my determination to assemble all the right participants, no matter how long it took, is about to culminate in the best way possible.”
The decision to cast Carney as Buckley does, at first impression, seem to be a promising choice. Aside from his physical resemblance, Carney’s voice shares more than a passing similarity to Buckley’s. Check out a recording of Carney singing for the Broadway producting of Hadestown and listen for yourself.
The son of famed musician Tim Buckley — although the pair only ever met once — Buckley released his debut album, Grace, in 1994. It was initially met with lukewarm reviews and middling sales, but has since grown to become regarded as one of the best American albums of the Nineties.
In 1997, Buckley accidentally drowned while swimming in the Mississippi River. Since then, his legacy has been bolstered by a string of glowing retrospective reviews for Grace, as well as the 2007 release of his cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, re-popularising the original version and becoming a definitive rendition itself.
Filming for the biopic will begin in autumn this year.
