Ah, music legends. You are such interesting fodder for movie biopics. Sissy Spacek and Jamie Foxx both won Oscars for their portrayals of music legends in Coal Minor’s Daughter and Ray, respectively, and countless other performers have tried their hand at bringing musical genius to the big screen. The next up in the musical biopic sub-genre is Love & Mercy, the story of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson.
Wilson will be played by both Paul Dano as a younger version of the superstar and John Cusack as the older version. And while, according to the trailer, the music of Wilson’s iconic group The Beach Boys will be featured prominently in the film, its focus is Wilson’s struggle with his own mental illness. According to director Bill Pohlad, “[W]e wanted to get beyond the biopic, celebrity side of the Brian Wilson story and get to who he is as a human being, a human being with some profound struggles, and how we treat people with these kinds of challenges.”
The filmmakers did consult both Brian Wilson and Melinda Ledbetter (played by Elizabeth Banks) while making this movie and the film will premiere this June with their blessing. That doesn’t mean that the portrayal of Wilson will be soft though, as evidenced by the full length trailer. A new poster for the film was released this week which you can check out below!
Watch the full length trailer for Love & Mercy right here!
Love & Mercy, starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as Brian Wilson, is in theaters June 5, 2015.
