Feature film ‘Sing Street’, which was announced this week in Berlin, will see Dublin-born John Carney (the director-writer of ‘Once’ and ‘Can a Song Save Your Life?’) collaborate with Bono and the Edge. The singer and lead guitarist of U2 have had lifelong ties with Carney. They will be involved in the film’s music as well as in other aspects of the film which are to be confirmed.
WME is handling the American rights to the film while FilmNation Entertainment will be selling it to international distributors at EFM. The project is set to begin production in Dublin this summer.
‘Sing Street’ has been described as ‘a semi-autobiographical tale inspired by the filmmaker’s love of music’. Set in 1980s recession-ridden Dublin, it tells the story of a fourteen year old named Cosmo who finds life at home difficult. He decides to forms a band with school mates, whom he writes songs and shoots videos with. When family trouble strikes, he runs away to London with his fifteen year old girlfriend who aspires to be a model.
The project will be produced by Carney through his company Distressed Films, along with Anthony Bregman of Likely Story, Kevin Frakes from PalmStar Media, Raj Brinder Singh from Merced Media Partners, as well as Paul Trijbits and Christian Grass from FilmWave.
Carney’s most recent film, ‘Can a Song Save Your Life?’ landed a major sale with Weinstein Company at the Toronto International Film Festival last year (see the story here). His film ‘Once’ won several awards including an Oscar for Best Original Song.
U2, the world-renowned rock band from Dublin, recently won the Golden Globe for their song ‘Ordinary Love’ for the film ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedon’. The song is also nominated for this year’s Academy Awards in the Best Original Song category.
