{"id":655020,"date":"2026-05-20T19:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655020\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:47:11","slug":"billy-joel-doesnt-want-you-to-see-the-billy-joel-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655020\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel Doesn\u2019t Want You to See the Billy Joel Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Joel<\/a> has disowned Billy and Me, a new film dramatizing his life in the years before his superhit \u201cPiano Man.\u201d Told from the perspective of Joel\u2019s first manager, Irwin Mazur\u2014whose own life rights provide the basis for much of the screenplay\u2014the feature is directed by John Ottman, a composer and editor whose credits include The Usual Suspects, Bohemian Rhapsody<\/a>, and Michael<\/a>. The makers of Billy and Me have been trying to secure the rights to Joel\u2019s life since 2021, a representative for the singer-pianist told Variety<\/a>. \u201cBilly Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Casting for the film is nonetheless under way, with the close involvement of Jon Small, Joel\u2019s former drummer and longtime friend; as well as providing his own life rights, he will serve as a consultant, co-executive producer, and second unit director. Small told Variety, \u201cI first met Billy when he was 16 years old, and after reading the script, I felt the filmmakers truly understood who he was before the world knew his name\u2026. As someone who was there from the very beginning, I can say this script captures not just the music, but the friendships, struggles, humor, and creative spark that defined those years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The filmmaker Adam Ripp, who wrote the script and is producing the film, added, \u201cBilly and Me focuses on the period surrounding Billy Joel and the Hassles, and features the cover songs performed by them during that era. As such, characterizing Billy and Me as \u2018legally and professionally misguided\u2019 does not accurately reflect the nature of the project nor the legally obtained rights underlying the production. The film is based on Irwin Mazur and Jon Small\u2019s firsthand experiences and Irwin\u2019s legitimate right to tell his own life story and perspective regarding the events depicted in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debacle recalls the back-and-forth<\/a> between the David Bowie<\/a> estate and the makers of the 2020 film Stardust, which did not secure his music rights. In that case, the producers were forced to respond to criticism from Bowie\u2019s son, Duncan Jones, by clarifying that the film was not a biopic but \u201can \u2018origins story\u2019 about the beginning of David\u2019s journey as he invented his Ziggy Stardust character.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Joel has disowned Billy and Me, a new film dramatizing his life in the years before his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,2695],"class_list":["post-655020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}