A representative for Billy Joel says there are no life or musical rights to the biopic “Billy and Me” and that continuing the project would be “legally and professionally misguided.”
WASHINGTON – Billy Joel says biopic Regarding his concert titled “Billy & Me” it was done without his authorization or support.
A rep for the “Piano Man” singer told Variety that he is not involved in the project, which begins filming this fall.
“As of 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not own the life rights to Billy Joel and will not be able to obtain the music rights required for the project,” the representative told Variety. “Billy Joel did not authorize or support this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be legally and professionally misguided.”
The biopic, announced Tuesday, will focus on Joel’s origin story “before he was famous” and before his hit song “Piano Man,” Variety reported.
The biopic is currently casting, with “Michael” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” editor John Altman set to direct. people reported.
The film has been listed in the “pre-production” stage Internet medical database Here’s the summary: “Before he was a pianist. Before he married an uptown girl. Before he got into a New York mentality. There was a man who believed in Billy Joel more than Billy believed in himself.”
Adam Ripp is writing the script and told hollywood reporter The film was never intended to use Joel’s hit song.
“The project was always designed to be an intimate origin story, focusing on the people and relationships surrounding Billy at this particular time in his life,” he said. “The film is told primarily through the perspective of Irving Mazur, who discovered Billy as a teenager and managed him for approximately seven years. We have exclusive lifetime rights to Irving Mazur.”
Mazur worked with Joel in the years before he had his hit song in 1973 and earned the nickname “The Piano Man.”
Jon Small, a former long-time friend and drummer in Joel’s pre-Piano Man band The Hassles, also participated in the biopic. entertainment weekly reported.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Small and Joel had a falling out over an alleged affair with Small’s wife, whom Joel later married and divorced nine years later.
“This is the most honest, heartfelt, and authentic portrait of Billy’s early life and rise to become one of the greatest musical voices of our time,” Small told screen roar. “As someone who has been involved from the beginning, I can say that this script captures not only the music, but the friendship, struggle, humor and creative spark of those years.”
No other casting or details about the film are known at this time.
