Comedy icon Steve Martin can add another feather to his cap — he’s now a bona fide elder statesman of the industry, soon to become the subject of a documentary. The two-part film will be directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville, co-produced by A24, and released on Apple TV+.
A legendary multi-hyphenate, Martin has achieved the pinnacle of success not only as a standup comedian but also as a Saturday Night Live host and a movie star. He published a memoir about his career as a comic, titled Born Standing Up, and will soon release his second book, Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions. He can currently be seen in the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, which reunites him with his long-time pal Martin Short, and also stars Selena Gomez. Martin is otherwise best known for films such as Three Amigos; Plains, Trains and Automobiles; Parenthood; the Father of the Bride films; and the Cheaper by the Dozen series. A noted banjo player as well, he’s the winner of multiple Grammys, an Emmy, and an honorary Oscar.
Neville is an interesting (albeit unexpected) choice to direct a film about Martin. He won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for his tremendous 2013 film 20 Feet From Stardom, which put the spotlight on the backup singers of iconic musicians. He also directed They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, a 2018 documentary about the ill-fated production of Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind. In the same year, he released the Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Most recently, Neville attracted slight controversy for utilizing artificial intelligence to resurrect the late chef Anthony Bourdain’s voice in his 2021 documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.
Neville clearly chooses diverse subjects, but they’re all entertainment industry-adjacent. His film will join an Apple slate that includes the four-part Earvin “Magic” Johnson docuseries They Call Me Magic, the Emmy-nominated documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, the Critics’ Choice Documentary Award-nominated film The Velvet Underground, the upcoming documentary honoring iconic Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker Sidney Poitier, Sidney, and the recently announced feature film about the life of beloved actor and advocate Michael J. Fox.
A24 is best known as the indie outfit behind hit films such as this year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and the Best Picture-winning Moonlight. In the non-fiction space, the company has released the Oscar-winning documentary Amy, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s De Palma, and most recently, the Val Kilmer documentary Val. You can watch our interview with Martin here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
