Billy Joel hits out at “legally and professionally misguided” biopic plans
Billy Joel has condemned plans for a biopic on his early life, describing the film as “legally and professionally misguided”.
Yesterday (May 19th), it emerged that John Ottman was set to direct a biopic on Joel’s early life, which had been given the title Billy & Me.
Billy & Me is set to be told through the lens of Joel’s first manager, Irwin Mazur, who first became aware of the singer-songwriter in 1966, before guiding him through the early stages of his career until they parted ways in 1972.
However, mere hours after it was revealed that Billy & Me was in the works, and even the casting process was already underway, Joel slammed the film.
A representative for the singer-songwriter told Variety, “Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project.”
They added, “Billy Joel has not authorised or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.”
In response to Joel’s representative blasting the planned movie, Adam Ripp, the screenwriter for Billy & Me, hit back, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “At no point have we ever claimed to control or possess rights to Billy Joel’s original songs, nor has this film ever been conceived around the use of his hit catalog.”
Ripp added, “The project was always designed as an intimate origin story focused on the people and relationships surrounding Billy during this specific period of his life.”
The screenwriter stated that they hold Mazur’s exclusive life rights, as well as those of Jon Small, Joel’s friend and former bandmate, who is a consultant on the production.
If you have déjà vu, that’s because we have been here before. Back in 2022, it was reported that a film, titled Piano Man, about Joel’s career was in the works. However, a spokesperson for the singer distanced Joel from the project.
They told Variety that Joel “is not involved with this film project, and that no rights in music, name/likeness or life story will be granted.”
The ‘Piano Man’ singer has also previously gone on record to state that he doesn’t believe his life has been exciting enough to make for a film, and even returned the advance for an autobiography because he felt it was too boring.
Joel told Rolling Stone in 2019, “I was gonna write an autobiography at one time — and I did. There wasn’t enough sex, drugs and rock & roll in it for the publisher, so I gave the advance money back. I said, ‘Fuck it, that’s me.’ I don’t know if I’m interesting enough to make a movie out of. I lived my life. I don’t want to be redundant.”
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