Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope Laboratories has picked up first time filmmaker Yony Leyser’s documentary “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within” for distribution, indieWIRE reports.
The documentary, which follows the life of the life of the legendary beat author and features previously unseen archival footage, will also be soundtracked by iconic noise rockers Sonic Youth and Patti Smith. It is unclear whether the soundtrack will be comprised of previously recorded pieces or new collaborations between the two artists. But, given Sonic Youth’s recent score work in Fabrice Gobert’s “Lights Out” and the fact that they have previously worked with Burroughs on his 1990 spoken word album Dead City Radio, we wouldn’t be surprised if the soundtrack at least featured a bit of new material.
The film, narrated by Peter Weller (the star of “Naked Lunch”), features interviews with admirers and collaborators alike, including John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant (Burroughs had a small role in “Drugstore Cowboy,” and had a tiny cameo in “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues“) Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg who obviously found a brilliant way to bring the aforementioned “Naked Lunch” to the screen — a crew of real characters, for sure.
‘A Man Within’ currently is set for a fall theatrical release with a DVD and digital release to follow thereafter. The film will also get a television broadcast as part of the PBS series “Independent Lens” in their 2010-2011 season. You can check out the trailer for the film below.