Filmmaker Todd Haynes, whose 1998 film Velvet Goldmine was loosely based on the ’70s glam rock world Bowie and Lou Reed, will now focus his eye on Reed’s group The Velvet Underground for a new documentary that’s been acquired by AppleTV Plus.
The film has been in the works for a few years. “They’re lifechanging,” Haynes said of the iconic group in an interview with Collider last December. “They altered the way you see and hear things, and, of course, affected music and generation of artists, ever since they first appeared. You can’t overstate their influence.”
Haynes told Collider that his intention with the documentary “is really to focus on the time and place, in New York in the avant-garde era and the really rich, thriving period where music and art and performance and happenings were all co-mingling and mutually informing each other. There was a great sense of discovery and experimentation going on. So, my goal was really to interview people and focus on the people who were there and present, as real direct witnesses to it. That was where we started with the people we interviewed for it.”
Overseen by Polygram Entertainment, The Velvet Underground is produced by regular Haynes collaborator Christine Vachon’s Killer Films and Motto Pictures and will feature new interviews with “key players” from the era, including all surviving members of the band, and “a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films, and other experimental art.”
No word yet on a release date for The Velvet Underground. Stay tuned.
In other VU-related news, Jarvis Cocker’s band JARV IS… recently streamed a set in which they covered The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs” and more.
