Days before its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, the new trailer for Greetings From Tim Buckley has been released. In this film, Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley portrays a young Buckley, who hasn’t yet burst onto the music scene. Instead, the new trailer shows more of that father-son angst promised from the atypical film, with a touch of romance from leading lady Imogen Poots.
A young man stuck in the shadow of his successful father’s career, the younger Buckley is called upon to eulogize his father at a tribute concert 16 years after his death. The performance given by the younger Buckley in tribute to the father he barely knew was said to jump start his career, and its the central point of the film Greetings From Tim Buckley .
For some, it’s an unfamiliar image, as this documents the days before the singer was signed with Columbia and recorded his first and last completed album “Grace”, before drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997.
The synopsis of Greetings From Tim Buckley through Tribeca Films reads as follows: “Like father, like son” is a demanding expression for someone who never knew his dad. When young Jeff Buckley (Penn Badgley) is asked to participate in a tribute concert for his late musician father Tim, music opens his eyes to the artistic legacy that he is destined to follow. Imogen Poots co-stars in this quiet and powerful tribute to those legends sustained by admiration, love and, in this case, beautiful music.”
It should also be noted that this production wasn’t given the rights to any of Buckley’s songs, but Badgley seems to make due of what he has been given as he croons out a performance of “Once I Was” at the now legendary St. Ann’s Chuch in New York.
For fans who have been waiting for a biopic that will discuss the rise and inevitable halting of Buckley’s career, this film won’t be the answer. A more straight forward biopic is still in development under the supervision of Jeff’s mother Mary Guibert tentatively titled Mystery White Boy. Broadway singer Reeve Carney was once set to play Buckley, but now it seems as though Carney has dropped out of the production due to Jake Scott being replaced by director Amy Berg.
Greetings From Tim Buckley makes its official US debut on May 3 following its Tribeca Film Festival debut.
Check out the trailer below: