News | BMG | Los Angeles, 04/19/2022

‘Moonage Daydream’: BMG Announces New David Bowie Film

BMG has announced a documentary about the famous singer David Bowie. The film, to be released shortly, is the first documentary about Bowie authorized by his estate. “Moonage Daydream” was jointly produced and financed by BMG and Live Nation Productions. The film’s music producer is David Bowie’s longtime musical companion Tony Visconti.

BMG will shortly release “Moonage Daydream,” a definitive new portrait of David Bowie by Brett Morgen and the first film to be officially sanctioned by Bowie’s estate.The documentary was co-produced and co-financed by BMG and Live Nation. The partners have licensed the U.S. distribution rights to Neon, while Universal Entertainment International will handle the movie outside the U.S. North America cable and streaming rights have been licensed to HBO and HBO Max.
Acclaimed filmmaker Brett Morgen (“The Kid Stays in the Picture,” “Cobain: Montage of Heck,” “Jane”) has synthesized David Bowie’s music and art into a kaleidoscopic experiential cinematic odyssey that explores Bowie’s creative, spiritual, and philosophical journey. With never-before-seen footage, performances, and music, “Moonage Daydream” is guided exclusively by Bowie’s narration. The motion picture features 47 musical tracks mixed from their original stems. Bowie’s long-time collaborator and friend Tony Visconti is the film’s music producer.

The film, including its title track, draws extensively on Bowie’s 1970 to 1977 song catalog, in which BMG has a 25-percent stake, including hits like “Changes,” “Starman,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “The Jean Genie,” “All The Young Dudes,” “Life on Mars,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Fame,” “Young Americans” and “Golden Years.” BMG’s relationship with the Bowie catalog is unaffected by Warner Music’s recent acquisition of the Bowie song catalog. BMG EVP Global Repertoire Fred Casimir said, “This has been a five-year labor of love to honor one of the greatest song catalogs in music history. BMG is proud to build on our long-term relationship with the David Bowie estate working hand-in-hand with our partners Live Nation Productions to bring Brett Morgen’s vision to the big screen.”

“Moonage Daydream” is the first film in a multi-picture deal between Brett Morgen and BMG for IMAX productions. Designed from conception as a unique cinematic experience, the film will be released in IMAX in select markets. In the IMAX process, films are projected in higher resolution onto particularly large screen areas that almost completely fill the viewer’s field of vision. The film is written, directed, edited, and produced by Brett Morgen. 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 for RZO; Billy Gerber, and Debra Eisenstadt.

The upcoming documentary is the latest project in BMG’s growing line of music-related films and television projects including “DIO: Dreamers Never Die,” which recently made its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival; the critically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival selections “David Crosby: Remember My Name” – Grammy-nominated for “Best Music Film” – and the Joan Jett documentary, “Bad Reputation”; “Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records”; and “Echo In The Canyon,” one of the top-grossing documentaries of 2019. Recently, BMG partnered with Pulse and Quickfire Films and multi-Platinum, two-time BRIT Award-winning, Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi for his debut feature-length documentary film. BMG is the long-time music publisher of Capaldi’s songs.