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Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi<\/p>\n
Mon 17 August 2026 16:48, UK <\/p>\n
An unauthorised documentary on the early career of Billy Joel<\/a>, which has been made with AI, is currently in the works.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are a number of projects floating around<\/a> at the moment charting the life of the iconic Piano Man, both with and without his prior approval, with the latest likely to ruffle some feathers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The newest addition is an AI animated film which has been made based on a lost interview a then 22-year-old Joel gave to a college radio station in Long Island off the back of the release of his first album, Cold Spring Harbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Adam Ripp is behind the AI film, and also happens to be the son of Artie Ripp, who produced Joel\u2019s debut record.\u00a0<\/p>\n The pair famously parted ways on acrimonious terms after the singer accused the producer of causing the album\u2019s commercial failure by mastering it at the wrong speed. <\/p>\n However, in terms of the latest film, Joel\u2019s first manager, Irwin Mazur, reportedly unearthed the tapes of the lost radio appearance alongside his cousin Ed Mann, who conducted the interview in 1971. <\/p>\n They subsequently brought the tapes to Ripp, who then used a Canadian AI company to animate photos and sound recordings into the 20-minute movie, 1971: Billy Joel\u2019s Lost Interview. <\/p>\n Joel himself has not commented on the development of the project since it was first reported on last week, but it is the latest in a line of unauthorised projects being made about him involving Mazur. <\/p>\n The singer\u2019s former manager is set to become the focal point of the biopic Billy & Me, telling Joel\u2019s story from his perspective as well as that of his ex-bandmate, Jon Small. <\/p>\n With Ripp also onboard that project as a screenwriter and with the movie set to be directed by John Ottman, a representative of the \u2018Vienna\u2019 singer was forced to clarify that it did not have the approval of the musician himself and was \u201cboth legally and professionally misguided\u201d<\/a> when it was announced back in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given his disapproval of the initial biopic, Joel is also likely to be unhappy with the AI-generated plans for his lost interview, though he has not yet made any public statement on the matter.<\/p>\n
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