Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson deemed “monsters” over ‘Song Sung Blue’ by real-life son of film subject
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson have been heavily criticised for their work in the movie, Song Sung Blue, by the real-life son of the character played by Jackman.
The pair star as Mike and Claire Sardina, who began the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning and Thunder. The tribute band were immensely popular in the 1990s and even opened for Pearl Jam.
The film follows the couple as they face much tragedy together. Mike passed away in 2006, but Claire gave her full backing for the new movie. However, their son, Michael Sardina Jr, has slated the new movie.
As per People, Sardina shared, “Everybody thinks it’s such a wonderful film, it’s so touching. It’s all lies. And it steals all the hard work that my father put in his entire life.”
Sardina shared that he was “cut out of the film”, despite allegedly being a paid consultant for the movie. His sister, Angelina, is played by musician King Princess.
Sardina went on to add, “Every interview that those monsters have been on national television don’t even mention my existence at all, even though I was the most prevalent force in my father’s life, even when I wasn’t in Wisconsin, because I’m his only son.”
He continued, “They didn’t even try to contact me . . . They didn’t try to get more information… They could have very easily asked [director] Craig [Brewer].”
He added that his father would be “rolling in his grave” over the new movie.
His sister reiterated those claims, adding, “The only thing that was true is the love between my dad and Claire. It’s a beautiful story, but that’s not how it went down. And I guess that’s what’s upsetting because it’s a lie.”
In an exclusive upcoming interview with Far Out, set to be published in the coming days, director Craig Brewer shared how he was inspired to tell the story of Lightning and Thunder after seeing the Greg Kohs documentary, Song Sung Blue, at a film festival in Memphis.
To Far Out, he called the original documentary “inspiring”, adding, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a feature film that those were the kinds of heroes we saw: Really relatable people, middle American people, working class people that had unbelievably big dreams?”
Brewer also added, “I really wanted to try to avoid any sort of cynicism in the movie and show them as plainly as I could. They just wanted to entertain people. And no matter what they did, like life kept on, like trying to kick them down, but they just simply wanted to love each other and entertain each other.”
Song Sung Blue is in cinemas now.
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