Linda Perry Documentary Coming From Mercury Studios, Utopia Originals – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Linda Perry, one of the most talented singer-songwriters in popular music, will be the subject of an upcoming documentary from Mercury Studios and Utopia Originals.

Award-winning filmmaker Don Hardy (Citizen Penn) is directing Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, described as “an intimate look at the multi-faceted singer, songwriter and producer.” Perry was the lead singer and principal songwriter for the influential band 4 Non Blondes from 1989-1995, then embarked on a solo career and later founded two record labels. She became a hitmaker for other artists, writing “Beautiful” for Christina Aguilera, “Get the Party Started” for Pink, and co-writing the Gwen Stefani hit “What You Waiting For?” She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.

“Linda Perry is one of the most outspoken and recognizable artists of the past 30 years,” notes a release about the documentary project. “The hat, tattoos, attitude, and her massive hit single ‘What’s Up’ with her band 4 Non Blondes made her an icon. But, in the decades since that song topped the charts, Perry has reinvented herself as a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, penning and producing hit-after-hit for artists like Adele, Christina Aguilera, Brandi Carlisle, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Ariana Grande, Alicia Keys, Dolly Parton, Pink, Gwen Stefani and Weezer.”

The release continues, “But this film is much more than the story of a talented musician. Linda Perry: Let It Die Here offers viewers an intimate look at Perry’s personal and professional life during a particularly intense period. We see Perry at her most vulnerable and most courageous as she struggles with past and present, where fear, illness, loss, and the burdens of family compel her to grapple with questions all of us ask ourselves: Who am I? Am I loved? What’s my purpose? What will I leave behind? Produced with the full cooperation of Perry, the film features rare access and new footage, interviews with Perry, her colleagues, family and friends.”

Mercury Studios is also behind American Symphony, the documentary about Grammy-winning recording artist Jon Batiste directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, where it triggered a bidding war; on Monday, Netflix and the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground announced they had acquired the film.

Regarding the Perry project, Alice Webb, CEO and co-president of Mercury Studios, said in a statement, “Linda Perry is an extraordinarily gifted artist whose story of strength and resilience continues to reveal new truths about the human condition. Mercury Studios, in partnership with Utopia Originals, is proud to present her story.”

“Larger than life as a songwriter and producer, Linda Perry has proven herself one of pop music’s major creative forces,” said Robert Schwartzman, co-founder of Utopia Studios. “Don Hardy’s intimate film explores Linda in all of her roles – musical genius, collaborator, mother, daughter, sister, among them, and follows her emotional journey as she searches to find her own voice and desires after a lifetime of helping others find theirs. Utopia is thrilled to work with a company of Mercury’s track record and caliber to bring her story to life.”

Mercury Studios and Utopia Originals present a KTF Films production, Linda Perry: Let It Die Here. The film is directed by Don Hardy and produced by Shawn Dailey and Don Hardy. The executive producers are Barak Moffitt, Daniel Seliger, Robert Schwartzman, Danielle DiGiacomo, Ellen Fair and Kim Forbes Tramel.

Along with American Symphony, recent Mercury Studios films include If These Walls Could Sing, “the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios” directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney for Disney+; My Life as a Rolling Stone, a four-part docuseries of intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts for the BBC and MGM+; and Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, a documentary about the superstar currently streaming on Netflix.

“Editorially independent, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group,” according to a release about the company, “and represents the world’s leading catalogue of music-related content, consisting of thousands of hours of premium music-driven film and television programming.”

Co-founded by filmmaker Robert Schwartzman and Cole Harper in 2018, “Utopia is a film distribution and sales company that specializes in independent and documentary cinema,” a release noted. Recent releases include acclaimed dark comedy Sick of Myself, and Ali Abbasi’s awards contender and Cannes winner Holy Spider, and “box office breakout Meet Me in the Bathroom, which documents the early years of The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and LCD Soundsystem.”