With the holiday release of Song Sung Blue, writer/director Craig Brewer had already received the ultimate glowing review.
Based on the Greg Kohs documentary of the same name about a Neil Diamond tribute band, Brewer said the 2x Grammy winner asked when he could “watch it again” after screening the film starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, now in theaters.
“I was not in the room with him, but I had a few spies,” Brewer told Entertainment Weekly. “I had also been prepped that Neil does not get effusively enthusiastic or into movies. He watches them, he studies them — that’s what I was told.”
Brewer recalled of Diamond’s reaction, “I was told from his people that they were surprised to see just how enthusiastic he started to get with it, that he was tapping his foot, that he would applaud after each music number, and that he cried. He went up to the projectionist, or the person was running the screening, and when they introduced themselves to him, he said, ‘Okay, well, when’s the next screening? Can we watch it again?’
“And so I was so happy about his reaction because I hope what it does for him — not that he looks for this or needs it — but I just hope he knows how incredibly relevant his contribution to songwriting is,” he added. “Those songs are beautiful, and yeah, he’s a performer, but he’s a writer. He wrote these, he thought them, he felt them in his soul, and then he created them.”
Universal Music Group
Song Sung Blue follows the musical journey and love story of Milwaukee couple Mike (Jackman) and Claire (Hudson), who form the Diamond tribute act, Lightning and Thunder.