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The producers of Mystery White Boy, the Jeff Buckley biopic that was announced in 2006 and has been progressing slowly since, have named Jared Leto, James Franco, James Marsden and Robert Pattinson as contenders for the lead, according to Australian newspaper, Courier-Mail.
Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, who for years had refused proposals for a biopic about her late son's life, hand-picked a team to move forward with the film in '06. Michelle Sy, who had recently produced the J.M. Barrie biopic Finding Neverland, was Guibert's first recruit. Together, Guibert and Sy enlisted young screenwriter Brian Jun (Steel City) to write a script and were expecting a draft that fall.
Public details about the film's progress have since been kept under wraps, but it now seems that the plans Guibert made three years ago have been revised. Screenwriter Ryan Jaffe (The Rocker) has replaced Jun, and IMDb now anticipates a 2010 release for Mystery White Boy.
Otherwise, the mystery of Buckley lives on. So much of Buckley's allure is wrapped up in the unknown, from the sweet
haunting of his unfinished discography to the persistent secrets of his 1997 drowning, that it is only fitting that most details about the film remain obscured.
Related links:
JeffBuckley.com
Jeff Buckley on MySpace
IMDb: Mystery White Boy
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I hope Pattinson gets it. He lives and breathes music and I think the person picked for the role needs that passion.
Here he is singing (recorded on a phone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQvmoO9_Yk
Its not a role you can fake so it needs to be an actor who is also a musician and not pretending to be. Pattinson has that same mystery about him.
Jared Leto, of course. He's a better actor than Pattinson, to say the least. Also, in the aspect of "living and breathing music," I'd say we could expect loads more out of Leto. I might even go as far as to say that Leto's musical career could even outweight his acting career, though he excels marvelously in both. He'd absolutely be the best choice.
Daniel Franco vs. Twilight Boy? No contest!
Just a hunch, but I think Rachael watches Project Runway.
I have been a Jeff fan for years now. I've listened to every one of his songs countless times, I have 100+ of his gigs... needless to say I am pretty well versed in all things Buckley.Further, I have and always will believe that making this biopic is a wrong move and one that Jeff himself would have loathed. However,I have to say that the overwhelming winner among these actors is James Franco; I believe with all my being that he will do the best job and enable the viewers to actually believe that they are watching Jeff Buckley. If it were that Twilight fellow to be people would go only to view him and not the rare unstoppable power that Jeff Buckley is.