John Cusack plays tortured genius Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, the new movie about the Beach Boys.
TrailerBrian Wilson, the driving force behind The Beach Boys, never surfed. He could add wave after wave of sound when he rhapsodized about the beach, but he felt that sand between his toes though a box he kept by his piano at his home. It took John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd together to rouse him from his piano stool and onto the beach on a film short for Saturday Night Live.
The mad genius of Brian Wilson is featured in the upcoming biopic Love & Mercy from Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. John Cusack plays the grown up man-child Wilson. Paul Dano plays him as a young rock and roller, singing out of the side of his mouth. Elizabeth Banks plays Wilson’s second wife, Melinda. Paul Giamatti plays Dr. Eugene Landy, the therapist who put the sandbox beneath Wilson’s feet.
Love & Mercy is due to hit theaters on June 5th.
Love & Mercywas directed by Bill Pohlad. The screenplay was written by Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner.
Love & Mercy tells the story of Brian Wilson as he led is brothers from a band that ripped off Chuck Berry riffs wholesale to becoming a major influential force in rock music, rivaling even the Beatles. The Beatles said their classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandalbum was produced to beat the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album’s clean and clear harmonic production.
Love & Mercy premiered in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
