LIDO, Venice, Italy – A true story that unfolds like a fractured fairytale, “Dreamin’ Wild” chronicles the heartbreak of a talented teen’s self-recorded debut record – and its bittersweet conclusion 30 years later.
In 1979 rural Washington Donnie Emerson released, with his elder brother Joe, the album “Dreamin’ Wild” which was ignored. Until 30 years later, found in a thrift bin, the record was rediscovered, reissued and lavishly praised.
Today the Emerson Brothers’ hit song “Baby’ has over 30M+ streams on Spotify and now averages nearly 2 million listens on all audio platforms. For Donnie, it’s a complicated legacy.
For director Bill Pohlad, “Dreamin’ Wild” begins as a record industry saga to stand as a heartfelt portrait of an amazing family.
“I was captivated by the music,” said Pohlad (“Love & Mercy” about Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson), “but it was meeting and being enchanted by the family. They’re people you never meet in the movies.”
Noah Jupe is young Donnie with Casey Affleck as Donnie today. Before filming began Affleck went to Washington with his girlfriend to spend time with Donnie on the farm. “That informed the way I portrayed him.”
Jupe (the horror hit “A Quiet Place” and its sequel) also bonded with Donnie. “Those times were emotional. He’s a very passionate guy.”
Music was their connection. “The first week we had a theater to practice and that bonded us as friends, working on the music and doing something creative.”
Marveled Beau Bridges, who plays the self-sacrificing father who sold much of the family farm to bankroll his sons’ musical dreams, “The recording studio Don Sr. built for his sons is still there! We were there on the farm during this whole adventure as a family. And the farm itself was a character in the piece. It’s amazing.”
Walton Goggins (“Justified”) is the adult Joe who never expected to have a musical career. The film, he said, “is about artists people have never heard of and what Bill [Pohlad] captured is what was so visceral: What is fame? How do we measure fame? What is the shame if one doesn’t reach a certain mountaintop?
“At the end it’s what they as brothers had, which is the love of making music. And that’s what it should always be about. It’s about reclaiming that for one’s self — and that’s what Bill did and what I felt about Joe.
“This movie,” Goggins concluded, “there’s a certain amount of relief they were proven right. But that’s not the end of the story. There was so much pain after the album was released. And that will change after seeing their story.”
“Dreamin’ Wild” will be released in theaters Aug. 4