BMG, Fremantle Documentaries and Warner Music Entertainment have collaborated on a new feature film, Devo.
The upcoming full-length documentary will also be the first ever fully authorised film on the new wave/rock group. Bertelsmann companies BMG and Fremantle Documentaries, and WME are executive producers and financiers of the film.
Currently in production, Devo chronicles the story of the band, from their formation in the aftermath of the Kent State massacre, through their years as politically driven outsiders, into their surprising turn to chart success with breakout hit Whip It.
“With a mixture of archival footage, interviews from other characters in their orbit and a range of storytelling techniques the film's inventive narrative will parallel the revolutionary creativity the band is known for,” said a statement. “Ultimately, Devo explores Devo’s evolution from hippie artistes to art-rockers with a message, to their unexpected mainstream success as a hit rock band and the pioneers of the MTV age.”
Produced by Vice Studios and Library Films in association with Mutato Entertainment, Devo is directed by Chris Smith and produced by Anita Greenspan and Chris Holmes for Mutato Entertainment. Executive producers are William Kennedy, Stuart Souter and Kathy Rivkin Daum for BMG, Mandy Chang for Fremantle Documentaries, and at Warner Music Group, Charlie Cohen for WME and Mark Pinkus for Rhino Entertainment.
Director Chris Smith said: “Devo was a huge influence on me. Their approach to music, film, video and art was something I had never seen before and was one of the truly formative artistic influences that showed me there were entirely new ways to look at things.”
BMG’s recent films include the highest grossing documentary film of 2022, Moonage Daydream, which also involved Warner Music as a key rights-holder in the David Bowie catalogue.
BMG films also include Dio: Dreamers Never Die, and two upcoming feature length documentaries: Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now (for Netflix) and Squaring The Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), distributed by Utopia and helmed by Anton Corbijn.
Warner Music Entertainment’s latest projects include Love, Lizzo (HBO Max), American Masters: Roberta Flack (PBS) and Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers(YouTube Originals).
PHOTO: Robert Matheu
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