Apple lands 'The Velvet Underground' documentary from director Todd Haynes

Apple has landed the rights to "The Velvet Underground," an upcoming documentary that explores how the band changed the world of music, set to air exclusively on Apple TV+

The documentary serves to show how The Velvet Underground became a cultural touchstone — one of rock 'n' roll's most revered bands — capable of embodying the band's creative ethos: "how to be elegant and how to be brutal."

"The Velvet Underground" will feature in-depth interviews with key players of the time and will include never-before-seen performances, Warhol films, recordings, and other experimental art.

Polygram Entertainment produces the film in association with Federal Films, a Motto Pictures and Killer Films production. Todd Haynes ("Carol," "I'm not there,") directs and serves as producer. The film is produced by Christine Vachon, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, and David Blackman.

The new work joins a growing slate of Apple TV+ original documentaries which includes the upcoming "Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds", as well as "The Elephant Queen" and "Beastie Boys Story."

9 Comments

mobird 20 Years · 758 comments

About 4 years ago

I wonder how it will be filmed and how the audio will be formatted? Not one mention of Lou Reed??... Amazon Music and Tidal both have the HiRes catalogs of The Velvet Underground. Music - limited catalog and no HiRes :/. Was hoping Apple would make an announcement at one of the recent events announcing that they were making real and significant changes to Music to include the HiRes catalogs, instead of the typical Music announcement regarding another DJ/personality or adding another radio station...

entropys 13 Years · 4316 comments

Speaking of movies about alternative bands, will it be as good as 24 Hour Party People?

winstoner71 7 Years · 117 comments

mobird said:

I wonder how it will be filmed and how the audio will be formatted? Not one mention of Lou Reed??... Amazon Music and Tidal both have the HiRes catalogs of The Velvet Underground. Music - limited catalog and no HiRes :/. Was hoping Apple would make an announcement at one of the recent events announcing that they were making real and significant changes to Music to include the HiRes catalogs, instead of the typical Music announcement regarding another DJ/personality or adding another radio station...”

To be fair, it’s a documentary, not a release of their catalog, so we don’t know what they’re going to do with the actual film yet. It will probably be in 4K and the sound maybe Dolby Atmos if we’re lucky. I do agree it’s high time Apple dips their toes in HiRes audio for Music. I’m invested in Apple Music, but I also use Qobuz/TIDAL for their HiRes audio in combination with my DAC. Currently 4 services (that I know of) offer this, while Apple is still spinning wheels. Crossing fingers it’ll be a surprise announcement when they announce their long-awaited Apple Studio cans next year.

crowley 15 Years · 10431 comments

entropys said:

Speaking of movies about alternative bands, will it be as good as 24 Hour Party People?

It's a documentary, it'll be very different.