Bruce Beresford will direct upcoming Buddy Holly biopic, ‘Clear Lake’

Oscar-winning director Bruce Beresford is set to direct an upcoming film about the life of Buddy Holly.

Titled Clear Lake, the biopic will see Beresford working with producer Stuart Benjamin, who work on the acclaimed biopic of Ray Charles, Ray, in 2004.

There are reports that the film will begin to shoot in the autumn but plans will be dependent on whether or not lockdown will be lifted significantly as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

According to Variety, Beresford and Benjamin are working with screenwriter Patrick Shanahan, executive producer Rick French and record label BMG who manages Buddy Holly’s estate and the rights to all of his music.

Beresford told Variety: “I found myself attracted to Clear Lake because the script tells the tragic story of Buddy Holly and his era in fascinating detail and with vivid characterisations.

“Needless to say, the added plus of all the wonderful music was also a major lure.”

Buddy Holly was considered one of the key figures in 1950’s American rock-n-roll. He died in 1959 alongside Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. He was 22-years-old.

Last year, Roy Orbison and Holly headed out on a joint UK tour in hologram form.

Titled the ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Dream Tour’, the late icons were backed by a full live band and backing singers as they performed across the country last October.

Ahead of the Roy Orbison hologram tour in 2018, his son Alex suggested that his father’s hologram could take to the stage at Glastonbury.







“We would love to see Roy play Glastonbury, that would be the ultimate,” he said. “This show would be perfect for that audience.”

Recent years have also seen the likes of Whitney Houston, AbbaRonnie James Dio and Tupac return to the stage as holograms.