Biopic on Bob Dylan

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

On the heels of the sale of their award-winning rock documentary “Immediate Family” to Magnolia Pictures, film producer-musicians Greg Richling and Jonathan Sheldon have announced the launch of their production company Pfonetic and are unveiling a slate of music-driven film and television projects.

The roster includes a long-in-the-works authorized biopic on the enormously influential but unsung producer Tom Wilson, who produced Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” and the first Velvet Underground album and recordings by John Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Sun Ra and many more — which is now titled “Like a Rolling Stone,” fittingly enough.

Other film and television projects currently in production include:

Sheldon adds, “As Greg and I are both musicians and film producers, we can uniquely get into the DNA of a project as an artist-executive managing the creative side and business as one whole.”

“Immediate Family,” directed by Denny Tedesco, is the follow-up to the “Wrecking Crew” doc which focused on the legendary ‘60s session musicians who performed on literally thousands of hits by everyone from Phil Spector to the Beach Boys and beyond. “Immediate Family” focuses on the musicians who would craft the singer-songwriter sound of the early 1970s. With interviews from the rock stars of the era including Neil Young, Steve Nicks, Don Henley, Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, and Phil Collins. The film was recently picked up by Magnolia Distribution for a December 2023 theatrical release.