The trailer for Brett Morgen’s new David Bowie documentary and “immersive cinematic experience” Moonage Daydream has been released ahead of its Cannes Film Festival premiere.
Morgen – who also directed 2015’s Kurt Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck, as well as 2017’s Jane, about world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall – has reportedly spent five years working on the Bowie project.
It’s an experience that nearly killed him, Morgen revealed.
“During the course of making the film I had a heart attack and flatlined for a couple of minutes, and was in a coma for a week,” Morgen told Deadline. “Most people don’t have heart attacks at 47 years old. My heart attack happened because my life was out of control and there was no balance to it and there was no discipline.”
Morgen said he “felt very alone and responsible” as the film’s editor and producer.
“I have three children and when I came out of that experience, I thought, ‘What’s been the message of my life?’ And ‘work really hard’—that’s kind of been it,” he told Deadline. “That’s the message I’d left behind for my children, and where does that get you? It gets you to be patient zero at Cedars-Sinai at 47 years old.”
The film was made from thousands of hours of rare performance footage, but the trailer focuses on snippets of Bowie from throughout his career, overlaid with quotes from Bowie, as well as Dick Cavett’s introduction from Bowie’s infamous 1974 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.
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“Questions have arisen such as, Who is he? What is he? Where did he come from?” Cavett intones. “Is he a creature of a foreign power? Is he a creep? Is he dangerous? Is he smart? Dumb? Nice to his parents? Real or put on? Crazy? Sane? Man? Woman? Robot? What is this?”
“All people, no matter who they are, all wish they’d appreciated life more,” says Bowie. “It’s what you do in life that’s important, not how much time you have or what you wish you’d done.”
Watch the trailer for Moonage Daydream:
Unlike the 2020 film Stardust, which starred Johnny Flynn as a young David Bowie, Moonage Daydream is approved by Bowie’s estate. The estate provided Morgen with over five million assets from Bowie’s private archive to complete the project.
The film will be shown at IMAX theatres later this year.
