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Turns out the upcoming David Bowie biopic won’t actually contain his music

Last week it was revealed that actor Johnny Flynn had been cast in Stardust, an upcoming David Bowie biopic bringing the star’s first American tour in 1971 to the silver screen.

In a somewhat spicy bit of follow-up news, Bowie’s son Duncan Jones has iterated that the biopic has proceeded without the blessing of his family or estate, and thus will not contain any music from Bowie’s extensive catalogue.

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The upcoming David Bowie biopic Stardust has been planned under the table, or so it seems. According to Duncan Jones, it will not have the family’s blessing.

Jones, a director in his own right known for MoonWarcraft and the upcoming Netflix series Mute, took to Twitter:

“Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic… I would know.”

“I’m not saying this movie is not happening. I honestly wouldn’t know. I’m saying that as it stands, this movie won’t have any of dad’s music in it, and I can’t imagine that changing. If you want to see a biopic without his music or the families blessing, that’s up to the audience.”

Responding to Jones’ claims, Salon Pictures (the studio producing Stardust) clarified that this was always the case. A funny thing to mention at this stage, if you think about it.

“We would like to clarify that this film is not a biopic, it is a moment in time film at a turning point in David’s life, and is not reliant on Bowie’s music.”

“We were told there wouldn’t be approval from the estate… the estate doesn’t (typically) license Bowie’s music.” Instead, “the production uses period music and songs that Bowie covered, but not his original tracks.”