It’s pretty much dream casting at this point, but consider us officially stoked at even the possibility.
Speaking to Pedestrian (via ONTD), independent writer and filmmaker David Miller (“My Suicide”) revealed that he was hard at work with his son Jordan Miller on a biopic of celebrated, but psychologically damaged Austin, Texas outsider musician and artist Daniel Johnston.
So what’s next in the pipeline for you work-wise?
I’ve got a few things going — we’re doing a Daniel Johnston biopic and I’m Producing and Writing and Gabriel Sunday our star [from “My Suicide”] he’s going to be Directing and playing young Daniel. It’s going to be an epic super hero story and it’s going to be a narrative biopic so it doesn’t really cover any of the same stuff that the famous “Devil And Daniel Johnston” Documentary that won Sundance in 2005 covers.How are you going to portray older Daniel Johnston?
That’s a really good question. We’re either putting Gabriel in a fat suit or there’s so many people that are reaching out that are huge Daniel Johnston fans. Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly for example, Johnny Depp’s a big Daniel Johnston fan though we’d like him to play the older brother. But we haven’t really arrived at that yet — we’re just in the scripting process at the moment but once we get the script finished we’ll be able to get a better handle on what the budget will be.
With actors already “reaching out” we can only imagine their interest in the film is more than just fan appreciation. Johnston’s story is perhaps on the most fascinating in popular music over the last couple of decades. Despite battling severe mental illness (he was institutionalized at one point), Johnston managed to record a wealth of raw, nervy and stripped avant-folk that has gained the influence of countless musicians (Beck, Sparklehorse, the Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes) and has earned him a cult following. He is also an accomplished visual artist and his works have been featured in a strong handful of gallery shows over the years.
The material is certainly ripe for a “narrative biopic,” but with the names the father/son Miller team is currently banging about, they seem to point the project in the right direction. If you haven’t seen the aforementioned documentary “The Devil & Daniel Johnston” do yourself a favor at NetFlix it right now. We included the film in our Best Music Documentaries of the Aughts feature from a few months back. The trailer is below: