Rare and unseen live footage of David Bowie is to be the basis of a new film by documentary film-maker Brett Morgen. According to Variety, the US director has drawn on thousands of hours’ worth of footage for his Bowie film – which does not yet have a title – and will also write, edit and produce the project. Morgen has already made a widely praised music film, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015), acclaimed for its use of intimate home-video footage mixed with animation, talking heads and Cobain’s artwork to tell the story of the Nirvana frontman. Rolling Stone described it as “the most intimate rock doc ever”. Other Morgen films include The Kid Stays in the Picture, about the colourful, cocaine-trafficking Hollywood film producer Robert Evans; and Jane, about British primatologist Jane Goodall. The latter film won two Emmy awards in 2018, including one for Morgen for directing non-fiction programming. Variety quotes a source close to the Bowie film, who calls it: “neither documentary nor biography but an immersive cinematic experience.” Tony Visconti, who produced numerous Bowie albums, is music producer on the project, which has the blessing of the Bowie estate. The Oscar-winning sound team behind Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody are also working with Morgen on the film. The keepers of Bowie’s estate remain adamant that a Bohemian Rhapsody-type biopic will not be made about him. Earlier this month, his widow Iman said: “People say things like, ‘Your love story should be made into a movie.’ Oh, dear God, no! It’s just so private. Also, it’s a family decision. It’s always a no. We always ask each other, ‘Would he do it?’ He wouldn’t. We want to honour his decision.” Stardust, a 2020 drama that charted Bowie’s creation of his Ziggy Stardust persona, with Johnny Flynn playing the singer, had to be made without the use of any Bowie music after the estate refused its use. “Its omission is noticeably awkward, with Flynn doing inert versions of tracks Bowie covered, such as Jacques Brel’s My Death, as a clumsy workaround,” wrote the Observer’s Simran Hans in a one-star review.