‘Once’ Director to Collaborate with Bono and The Edge

John Carney, the director of Once (arguably one of the best musical movies ever) will collaborate with U2’s Bono and The Edge on a new movie musical. The film will be titled Sing Street and will be set in Dublin, The Weinstein Company announced Thursday.

Carney wrote the screenplay and will also act as the film’s director, which is based on his own rough-and-tumble childhood. “It’s kind of a memoir of my days in school and a school-band back in the ’80s in Dublin,” Carney told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year. “A very rough, yellowing, coming-of-age diary entry of what my life was as a kid in the band.”

(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for CHANEL)

Sing Street is about Cosmo, a kid forced by Dublin’s depressed economy to leave the posh, upperclass private school he was attending. Cosmo’s family moves to a rough neighborhood, where he begins attending an inner-city public school. Cosmo turns to music as an outlet and it becomes his saving grace. He forms a band and falls in love throughout the film. The U2 stars will write the songs and contribute to the other musical elements of the film.

Carney is a musician as well. This is no surprise, as the musicality and nuance found in Once is clearly made through the vision of a musician. The director was an early member of The Frames, an Irish band founded by Once star Glen Hansard in 1990.

Carney’s most recent film, Begin Again, stars Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo and opens on June 27. Begin Again features music also and tells the tale of a dejected music business executive (Ruffalo) who forms a bond with a young singer-songwriter (Knightley) new to Manhattan. Hailee Steinfeld also stars.

(Lead Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)