If you have been keeping up with the journey of the Upcoming movie Stardust, an unauthorized biopic about the life of David Bowie, you will know that there is quite a heavy discourse about the morality of this creation, and its intentions.
The Movie was confirmed back in February, and received lots of backlash from Bowie’s family and close friends, some describing it as distasteful, and the creators were denied the musical rights by the Bowie estate.
In my opinion, this project is not being made out of love for the late musician, as surely someone who cared for Bowie and his legacy would respect the family’s wishes, right?
But now, creator of the movie, Johnny Flynn, is speaking out about the comments.
“It’s pretty much as I as I expected. I mean, there’s the Bowie fans, who don’t want you to fuck with their idea of David. But there’s also generally — rather unhelpfully, in this day and age, as you know — there’s such a kind of cancel culture on the internet, and the safety of tiny nine-inch devices, whatever they are, brings out the worst in people.
“I feel like there’s an energy that people can’t help but be swept up and in terms of condemning things or being offended by things. It provokes interesting dialogue around ideas, but also I think it’s kind of sad that people would condemn something without seeing it,” he said.
“Most of the the shit that we’ve been getting has been from people seeing the trailers, just the idea of the film that’s offensive to them. When people see the film, they seem to really like it. And we get great reviews.
Johnny continues, claiming that they always knew it wasn’t going to be a “jukebox style musical”, and that they were focusing more on the transformation of Bowies career.
I feel like Flynn is completely missing the point of the argument here. If something has been condemned by pretty much everyone who knew a man, and you, a stranger, decide to create something against their wishes, it does come across as offensive, in my opinion. It’s just basic respect.
Alas, the film will be going ahead either way, featuring “a small portion” of Bowie’s performances. I’m not expecting anything close to the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody, which received an incredibly positive reaction from fans and movie lovers alike. All we can do now is wait for the movie to come out to give our truest opinions.
Written By Mars Smith