"Golden" was suppose to come out today
The Pharrell Williams movie, Golden, was meant to be released today. I was super excited for this movie mainly because it’s a musical directed by Michel Gondry. However, it was reported in February that the movie was being cancelled, even after being shot in 2024. At first, I was devastated, especially after Warner Bros cancelling nearly completed films and labeling them as tax write-offs, I feared this was the same case. Et tu, Universal? But after reading the article from Variety, this was a unanimous decision from all parties involved. The movie was meant to be a coming-of-age- musical inspired by Pharrell Willams’ childhood. As it turns out, whatever was shot didn’t live up to his original vision. So it was the creative’s decision to cancel the movie and the studio backed them up. Still kind of unheard of.
There are no plans to ever release the movie in any way and I’m sure there were a lot of conversations on what they could do before they settled on just not finishing the movie, but I hope the whole project doesn’t die on a shelf. How many times has a movie changed throughout production and still gets released, for better or worse. I’m sure if they released whatever movie they had, it would’ve found its audience, even if it wasn't what they originally intended. I’m not even a fan of Williams, but after seeing his lego movie, Piece By Piece, I was surprised by his career and life and made me go “wait, he made that song?” Shame, a musical by Michel Gondry would've ruled!
-Jose Barr (5/9/2025)
