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Billy Crudup Sings Folk Music in Trailer for Next Movie

'Blood Ties' Photocall - The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Esteemed actor William H. Macy has made his directorial debut with the upcoming film Rudderless, starring Billy Crudup as Sam, a divorced, successful ad man whose life is destroyed and turned upside in a moment when his son dies during a school shooting. The trailer for the movie has just been released.

The grieving, despairing father is in the middle of a downward spiral and is irked when his ex-wife gives him boxes of their son’s belongings. But thanks to this acquisition, Crudup’s character uncovers one of his son’s home recording demo tapes. Sam makes the decision to begin performing the songs, giving Crudup the opportunity to sing and play guitar. Sam performs solo and afterwards is approached by Quentin, a socially challenged aspiring musician, played by Star Trek‘s Anton Yelchin, who persuades him to further explore his son’s music.

Along with some other messy-haired, early twenty-something actors, Sam and Quentin form a folk band and take the music to the next level. Needless to say, playing music and channeling his son by doing so is beyond therapeutic for Sam, gifting him with a new lease on life.

The movie appears to be an uplifting musical drama with a strong cast. The movie also features Felicity Hoffman as Sam’s ex-wife. Her casting is no surprise, as she is Macy’s long-time wife (the two married in 1997). Laurence Fishburne and Selena Gomez also have supporting roles, along with Macy himself, who plays the owner of the bar where the band (named “Rudderless”) plays frequently.

Most of Rudderless‘s songs are written by Simon Steadman (formerly of Britpop group Steadman) and Charlton Pettus, otherwise known as the duo SolidState. Their work is “solid, accessible, very oughties emo-type pop,” as stated by Dennis Harvey on Variety.com. The actors all play their own instruments in the film.

(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

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