Cameron Crowe will direct a new Joni Mitchell movie he’s been developing with Mitchell in secret over the past two years. As Above The Line reports, the film is neither a traditional biopic nor a documentary but something more like autobiography. Crowe, who interviewed Mitchell for Rolling Stone back in 1979 and has maintained a relationship with her over the years, has been writing the script with Mitchell’s input, resulting in a story that’s “basically her life from the inside looking out,” according to the report. There’s casting news or release schedule to report as of yet.
Upon republishing his Rolling Stone interview in 2000, Crowe wrote, “Every journalist has their dream list of interview subjects. Mine was Marvin Gaye, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. I never got to Marvin Gaye, but Joni Mitchell more than made up for it. My last cover story for the magazine, and still my favorite.” It’s unclear when they began work on the movie, but Crowe interviewed Mitchell again for the Los Angeles Times in 2021.
Crowe has a long track record of music-related film projects. He famously funneled his experiences as a teenage rock journalist into 2000’s Almost Famous, which he recently adapted into a failed Broadway musical, and helped to crystallize the grunge explosion in the public imagination with 1992’s Singles. He also helmed the Showtime series Roadies, which was canceled after its sole season in 2016.
Mitchell, who suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015, has been slowly returning to the stage lately. She’s made various brief appearances over the past year and will play her first proper concert in 20 years this summer.
