Anthrax bassist and Kate Nashjoin the Jeff Buckley biopiccast

Thu 25th Aug, 2011 in International News

Filming has begun on the Jeff Buckley biopic Greetings From Tim Buckley, with Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley in the lead role.

The film will tell the story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley’s performance at a tribute concert for his father in 1991. According to IMDB, the film will centre on “a romance with a young woman working at the concert, [through whom Buskley] learns to embrace all of his feelings toward the father who abandoned him – longing, anger, forgiveness, and love. Culminating a cathartic performance of his father’s most famous songs, Jeff’s début stuns the audience and launches his career as one of the greatest young musicians of his time.”

Anthrax bassist Frank Bello will appear in the film playing punk legend Richard Hell, who performed three songs at the tribute concert in 1991; Tim Buckley’s Moulin Rouge and Jungle Fire and I’m Livin’ On (Chinese Rocks) in tribute to Johnny Thunders who had passed away a week earlier. The film will also feature English pop singer Kate Nash, although there’s no word yet on who she’ll be playing.

Greetings From Tim Buckley is one of three rival projects about Jeff Buckley’s life. There’s an untitled Jeff Buckley biopic to be directed by Jake Scott starring Reeve Carney, of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark and the band Carney, which has Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert on board as executive producer. And there’s also film based on the book A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley by Australian biographer Jeff Apter with fellow Aussie Brendan Fletcher ( Mad Bastards ) directing in development.