Jeff Buckley Biopic, ‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley,’ Due Out This Summer

The Jeff Buckley documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, will be released in theaters on August 8. The Amy Berg-directed feature about the mesmerizing musician who tragically died at 30 when he accidentally drowned in Memphis’ Wolf River in 1997 will be released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures and then premiere on HBO and stream on HBO Max this winter as part of Bill Simmons’ Music Box series, according to Deadline.

“Told through never-before-seen footage from Buckley’s archives and intimate accounts from his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, Jeff’s former bandmates, including Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred, and luminaries like Ben Harper and Aimee Mann, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley illuminates one of modern music’s most influential and enigmatic figures,” reads a release about the film.

“His only studio album, Grace, was released to astounding reviews and challenged conventional ideas of genre and gender. His intimate and influential cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ further catapulted him to fame,” it continues. “Still, under pressure to produce his second album, he retreated to Memphis to escape the spotlight and the ever-growing glare of the public eye. In a tragic accident, Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis in 1997, leaving behind an unfinished second album and a legion of devastated family, friends and fans.”

A number attempts at making a film about Buckley have fizzled out to date, including one backed by Brad Pitt. In January at the doc’s premiere at the Sundance film festival, Buckley’s mother, Guibert, said the actor first floated the idea of a movie about the singer in 2000 after befriending her, but she eventually soured on his pitch. “We’re going to dye your hair, put brown contact lenses on those baby blues, and you’re going to open your mouth and Jeff’s voice is going to come out?” Guibert said she asked Pitt.

That idea never took off, but when Oscar-nominated Deliver Us From Evil director Berg pitched Guibert granted her access to Buckley’s archive and the movie moved forward with Pitt as an executive producer.

“I’ve spent practically my entire career trying to make this film, which takes a very intimate look at one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time,” Berg, who also directed the 2015 Janis Joplin doc Janis: Little Girl Blue, said in a statement. “I’m so excited Magnolia and HBO have come on board to share this film with the world and give old fans and new audiences a chance to experience Jeff from this unique vantage point. I couldn’t imagine a better team to roll this into the world!”

Buckley was the son of Guibert and late folk musician Tim Buckley and after gaining notice as a session musician and captivating performer in Manhattan’s East Village he signed to Columbia in 1994 and released his debut LP, Grace. It initially got mixed reviews and only reached No. 149 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but the album is now considered a classic, one that Buckley would never follow up.

Though he never completed a second album, Guibert helped compile some of her son’s demos for 1998’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which reached No. 64 on the Billboard 200 and received a Grammy nomination for best male rock vocal performance for the single “Everybody Here Wants You.”