Byrne Pens Song for Gibney's Musk Documentary
David Byrne, frontman of Talking Heads, has written and performed an original song for "Musk," the forthcoming documentary by Alex Gibney about tech billionaire Elon Musk. The track, titled "Let Me Sell You a Dream," appears within the film's 232-minute runtime and is being positioned as an Oscar-qualifying entry in the best original song category.
Byrne co-wrote the song with the documentary's composer Daniel Pemberton, whose credits include "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and "The Trial of the Chicago 7." Gibney, in a statement, praised the collaboration: "I was thrilled when David agreed to write (with our composer Daniel Pemberton) and perform the final song in the film." He added, "I sensed that he would find a musical way into what the film is trying to say. And he did."
The song's lyrics are drawn directly from Musk's own public statements. Byrne explained, "I asked for good quotes from the Martian, and found more of them online. I'm sure he loves dropping these wild statements, and those became the lyrics. All his own words. No editorializing. Straight from the man's mouth to mine."
Byrne, who won the Academy Award for best original score for "The Last Emperor" in 1988 alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su, would see a nomination for "Let Me Sell You a Dream" mark his first return to the Oscars race since. Pemberton previously earned a best original song nomination in 2021 for "Hear My Voice," co-written with Celeste for "The Trial of the Chicago 7."
Film Release and Festival Plans
"Musk" will be released in S. theaters by Bleecker Street on October 16. The theatrical run is expected to meet the eligibility criteria for the Best Original Song category at the Academy Awards, with the song entered for the 2027 ceremony. The film world premieres out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 8, before continuing to the Toronto International Film Festival.
The documentary, described in some quarters as a "scathing" examination of Musk, has been billed by Gibney as a "definitive and unvarnished examination" of the businessman. At 232 minutes, it stands among the most ambitious nonfiction portraits of Gibney's career.
Background and Production
Gibney first revealed in March 2023 that he had begun work on the documentary and was "many months" into production at the time. Musk responded to news of the project on his X/Twitter account by predicting it would be "a hit-piece." Gibney fired back on the same platform, asking "how would you know?"
Gibney directs and produces "Musk," joined by producing team members Jessie Deeter and Erin Edeiken for Jigsaw Productions, Dana O'Keefe for Double Agent, Joey Marra and Zhang Xin for Closer Media, and Anonymous Content's Nick Shumaker and Jessica Grimshaw. Ronan Farrow and Lawrence Wright round out the producing team.