Brett Morgen’s David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream is set for global release September 16. NEON will showcase the doc in the US while Universal Pictures International will release internationally, with IMAX engagements planned across multiple territories. The Japanese release is set for March 2023.
Moonage Daydream illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie, one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time. The motion picture reveals the celebrated icon through his own voice and features 48 musical tracks, mixed from their original stems.
The feature doc premiered at Cannes 2022 where to excellent reviews. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5 stars, calling it a “glorious shape-shifting ecology to the man.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote how the film “evoke[s] the most legendary landmarks of film.”
At a Cannes event organised by Cannes Docs, Morgen explained the rationale behind his approach to the film. This was never going to be a documentary with talking heads and a rehash of footage we have seen a thousand times before.
“With Moonage, I was definitely interested in creating a non-biographical experience,” he said. “With Bowie, it was perfectly suited for that because David Bowie is all about projection. The secret to Bowie is never in his songs. He’s not singing about anything in particular. There’s consonants and vowels and sounds. And we extract our own meaning and interpretations from them. And we’re usually synchronized in them. I like to say Bowie is best experienced rather than defined…And that was really critical in terms of how to design the film, which is [apply] the sprinkles and let the audience fill in the blanks.”
Moonage Daydream is written, directed, edited, by Brett Morgen and produced by Morgen and his production company, Public Road Productions. Executive Producers are Hartwig Masuch, Kathy Rivkin-Daum, and Justus Haerder for BMG; Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, and Ryan Kroft for Live Nation Productions; Bill Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Aisha Cohen, and Eileen D’Arcy from RZO; Billy Gerber, and Debra Eisenstadt. BMG and Live Nation Productions financed the film.
The team also includes: Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend and music producer Tony Visconti; Academy Award®-winning sound mixer Paul Massey (Bohemian Rhapsody) and David Giammarco (Ford v Ferrari); the Academy Award®-winning sound design team of John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone (Bohemian Rhapsody); and VFX Producer Stefan Nadelman (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck).
