Stardust

Today brings the first proper look at the new David Bowie origin film Stardust. In a short teaser clip (streaming below), we get our first proper look at Johnny Flynn as the legendary musician and Marc Maron as his publicist, Ron Oberman.

Stardust won’t use Bowie’s music because it doesn’t have the blessing of Bowie’s family, but it does sound like it will be quite the flick despite that. Directed by Gabriel Range, Stardust recounts the pop star’s first trip to America in 1971 and how it inspired the creation of his Ziggy Stardust alter ego.



This teaser clip proves Flynn knows how to emulate Bowie’s mannerisms beyond just looking the part. It finds Bowie and Oberman chatting on a porch at night while they discuss the risks of his upcoming album. After expressing his worries about the music not doing well, in part because “[Freddie] Mercury had doubts” about it, Bowie seems relieved to hear Oberman has faith in him. “All it takes is one believer to change the world, right? And we’ve got two,” Maron says. “You believe in yourself, don’t you?” Watch it below.

In addition to Flynn and Maron, the cast of Stardust also includes Jena Malone (The Hunger Games) as Bowie’s first wife, Angie. The script was written by Christopher Bell.

Stardust was originally scheduled to debut this week at Tribeca Film Festival, but of course that’s since been postponed due to coronavirus. It’s one of dozens, if not hundreds, of movies that have been impacted by the global pandemic.

If this movie or the new TV series of The Man Who Fell to Earth don’t come out soon, then at least we can always hole up with Bowie’s music itself. Whether you revisit Young Americans or Blackstar, or even previously unreleased recordings like “Baby Universal ’97” or “I Can’t Read ’97” that were recently made public, there’s comfort to be found in the Starman’s wisdom long after his passing.