The story of Song Sung Blue starts in a Memphis hotel room in 1969. Neil Diamond was a Jewish kid from Brooklyn who had discovered a passion for music when he saw folk icon Pete Seeger play at a summer camp in the Catskills. Diamond had early success as a songwriter, penning “I’m a Believer,” a number one hit for The Monkees, in 1966. He signed a record contract on the strength of that hit, but success under his own name was elusive. After selling a song to Elvis Presley (“And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”), he came to the Bluff City to record the album Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show with producer Chips Moman. When the record started to draw attention to the young singer/songwriter, he returned to Memphis for a follow up with Moman. Before the session started, he wrote a new song in an hour. Inspired by a picture of President John F. Kennedy’s daughter he saw in Life magazine, Diamond called the song “Sweet Caroline.” It was released as a single in May 1969; by August, it had become Diamond’s first gold record.
Neil Diamond would go on to have one of the greatest careers in American music, with 10 number-one hits on the Billboard charts and 38 songs that landed in the top 10. Thanks mostly to the soaring, sing-along chorus “Bap Ba Baaaa!,” “Sweet Caroline” remains an iconic song, irresistible to generations of wedding bands and karaoke singers.
One of the singers who was entranced by the power of the songs Diamond wrote was Mike Sardina. A Marine veteran who served in the Vietnam War, Sardina made a living as an auto mechanic and handyman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But by night, he was a musician, playing guitar in whatever band would have him, and singing in clubs under the stage name Lightning. After he met his future wife, Claire Stingl, who was a struggling Patsy Cline impersonator, they formed a duo called Lightning & Thunder. Their speciality, as they put themselves in front of audiences in malls and casinos across the Great Lakes region, was Neil Diamond songs. Nostalgia and tribute acts have always been big on the state fair circuit, but Lightning & Thunder were on a different level. Tirelessly playing gigs, they gathered fans a handful at a time until one day in the late 1990s, they got a call from Pearl Jam. At the time, Pearl Jam was the biggest band in the world, and it just so happened that singer Eddie Vedder was a big Neil Diamond fan who had heard the legend of Lighting & Thunder. He invited Lightning & Thunder to open for Pearl Jam on their Midwestern tour, and duetted with Mike on “Forever in Blue Jeans.” It would be the highlight of Mike and Claire’s musical careers. Afterward, they continued to play to big crowds until one fateful day in 1999. Claire was gardening when she was run over by a car which had swerved onto the couple’s front lawn. Claire lost her leg in the accident, sidelining Lightning & Thunder.
Years later, documentary filmmaker Greg Kohs, who had been a big fan of Lighting & Thunder, decided to look up the duo to find out what had happened to them. He found them, against all odds, plotting their comeback. His film crew followed Mike and Claire for months. The resulting documentary, Song Sung Blue, was a hit on the festival circuit in 2008. Mike, unfortunately, never got to see his second act in theaters. He died in 2006.
Big Dreams
Craig Brewer saw the documentary Song Sung Blue at the 2008 Indie Memphis Film Festival. At the time, he had already directed his breakthrough film Hustle & Flow, which earned star Terrence Howard an Oscar nomination and made Three 6 Mafia the first rap group to win an Academy Award, and the follow-up Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. He was immediately struck by the story, which was not just about a group of small-time musicians, but also about a family who was weathering crisis after crisis.
As his career moved forward, through 2011’s remake of Footloose for Paramount, screenwriting an epic take on The Legend of Tarzan, reuniting with Hustle stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson for the hit TV series Empire, and directing Eddie Murphy’s comeback in Dolemite Is My Name and Coming 2 America, he never forgot about Mike and Claire. “I think what attracted me to the material is not so much the music,” Brewer says. “I knew it would be great to kind of do my thing with Neil Diamond music, but really, it was just about the family unit. I felt a very personal connection to it. I felt like I could explore things that I’ve been dealing with in my life through this family. It came together at the right time in my life. There’s something about where Mike is, maybe looking back and having regrets, but wanting to try to be better about things, you know? The relationship between Mike and Rachel is, I feel, a lot like me and my daughter. I think when you have a child who’s got artistic parents, there’s both an inspiration and a frustration from it. It’s like, ‘Why can’t I just have normal, boring parents?’ to some extent. But at the same time, I think there’s also awe and inspiration. There’s nothing that you can spring on artistic parents that’s going to knock them on their ass.”
For years, Brewer pitched the story to every studio who would give him a meeting. “It was hard, but it’s understandable,” he says. “It’s something that we knew we had to find the right place that would get not only get it but would get me. I mean, let’s face it, the first time I was going around [Hollywood] 20 years ago, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about a pimp and two prostitutes, and they’re making rap music.’”
After the success of Dolemite Is My Name, the time seemed right. “The producers from that were like, ‘What do you want to do next?’ I felt like it was the right movie to bring up to them because I was like, ‘Look, keep in mind, we just made a movie where Eddie Murphy played an overweight, aging comedian who decides he wants to do kung fu and be an action star. And he brought together this crazy group of people that opened up a studio in an abandoned building with homeless people in it. And they made a movie that is absolutely terrible, but that has been entertaining people for decades and is now considered a classic. Okay, I would like to do this movie about this couple that formed a Neil Diamond tribute band and had all these horrible things happen to them, but they still remain true, and they still remain optimistic.’
“I knew it was going to be a little bit of a sell, but luckily, I found Focus Features and Universal. They had a great history with making that movie Yesterday. There’s a lot of music biopics that are happening right now, but I think Focus in particular thought it was such a unique way to have both. In other words, you’re getting what you usually get from a music biopic. You’re getting all this great music from Neil Diamond, but it’s not a Neil Diamond biopic. It’s about two people who are trying to be like Neil Diamond. People go, ‘Oh, I thought it was a biopic.’ It is! Then they’re like, ‘I just never heard about those people.’ I know, but that’s the point! You did not miss some major bit of news in your life. They were only known in Milwaukee by a few thousand people. That’s the whole purpose of the movie: to make an epic retelling of people with normal lives who have really big dreams.”
Getting The Band Together
Another person who was in the 2008 Indie Memphis audience for the Song Sung Blue documentary was Scott Bomar. The Memphis musician, composer, and producer would go on to collaborate with Brewer on several film and TV projects, most recently the limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist. “Meeting Craig has literally been a life-changing event for me,” he says. “It’s amazing to have that kind of artistic relationship with someone.”
He remembered the documentary when he got the call from Brewer three years ago. “I don’t think Craig had ever told me about it until he called me up and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this Neil Diamond-related project I’m doing, and I need some demos to rehearse with Hugh Jackman.’”
The actor had become famous in 2000 playing the superhero Wolverine in X-Men, one of the earliest films in the 21st century’s comic book boom. But before that, he had been a musical theater star in his native Australia, appearing in Beauty and the Beast and Oklahoma! Brewer had Jackman in mind to play Mike for years. “For one thing, there’s really not that big of a list of people who can move the needle in terms of getting a movie made who also can sing,” he says. “But really what it was is that, when I’d see the stuff he would do on Broadway or watch some of his old performances on YouTube, he’s a total ham, you know? He loves to entertain. He loves to get a mic in his hand and sing a show tune or two. Watch Hugh at Radio City Music Hall, singing something like ‘Mack the Knife’ or ‘New York, New York,’ you see the guy is totally in his happy place. Mike had that same kind of joy for performing.”
Jackman loved the idea of starring in the movie, but the project was derailed for a time while he returned to the role which made him famous in the 2024 box office smash Deadpool & Wolverine. In the meantime, Brewer found his Claire. The same year Jackman first donned superhero tights, Kate Hudson earned a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination for playing Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s rock music memoir Almost Famous. She and Brewer met in Hollywood circles, and he thought she would be perfect for the part. As it turns out, she was ready to sing; Hudson released her first album of original material, Glorious, in the summer of 2024.
Mike and Claire had three children from previous marriages: Rachel, Angelina, and Mark. Their coming together into a blended family is a big part of Brewer’s Song Sung Blue script. For the pivotal role of Rachel, Claire’s daughter who fights to keep the family together, Brewer tapped 20-year-old Ella Anderson, who had spent her formative years playing Piper Hart in the Nickelodeon series Henry Danger.
Anderson says she immediately connected with the character of Rachel. “I come from two parents from the Midwest who are both musicians, and they don’t support themselves from doing music, so I had an innate understanding,” she says. “Growing up, that was always the background of my life, the reality of not having a lavish world and yet being so fulfilled. What I love about Mike and Claire and their story and their family unit and the people that were in their world was, they were driven by this dream that they had, this shared love for the experience of performing and connecting with an audience. It may have made things a little bit difficult at times on top of the crazy tragedy that struck them, but that love was there. I’ve seen that with so many musicians over my life who, as Craig says, have a tip jar in front of them. I just think it’s the most gorgeous and yet accurate, realistic representation — and that’s coming from someone who was raised around it.”
Anderson didn’t see the documentary until after she had accepted the part, so at first, she didn’t know what was part of the real story of Mike and Claire and what Brewer had added for dramatic effect. “This screenplay is such a journey. I love all of the embellishments because I think that’s how large these things can feel to many families,” she says. “Then I watched the documentary and I was like, ‘Oh no, those things were not made up. That really happened!’ It made me love it even more.”
One of Rachel’s most important scenes is the first time she meets her soon-to-be stepsister Angelina. At first, they circle each other warily, but eventually, they warm up and bond over a joint. Angelina is played by Mikaela Mullaney Straus, better known as a singer/songwriter by her stage name King Princess. “I was a fan of her music,” says Anderson. “I showed up to the screen test, and I was like, ‘Whoa. Is this who I think this is?’ And then I was trying to convince myself, like, maybe they just look a lot like King Princess. All this while I’m also meeting Hugh and Kate for the first time. KP was great to have as a scene partner. We had a good time, and I think that is evident when you see it on screen.”
Song Sung Blue was shot primarily in New Jersey, which stood in for suburban Milwaukee. Brewer reunited with cinematographer Amy Vincent, who had so memorably lensed his breakthrough feature Hustle & Flow. Brewer recalls one day on location with Jackman and Hudson when Mike finally asks Claire to marry him after playing disastrous gig for a club full of bikers. It was getting cold that night, but Brewer insisted they press on with the shoot. “I’m always lucky with weather,” he says.
But after shooting Hudson’s close-ups and turning the camera on Jackman, it looked like his weather luck had run out. Snow started coming down in big sticky flakes, meaning that shots of Jackman would not match the shots of Hudson. But Brewer pressed ahead. He told Vincent to quickly reset for Hudson’s close-ups, and the scene was finished in near record time. In the completed film, the couple’s engagement happens in a romantic flurry of real snow — no special effects needed.
“The second I stepped onto set with Craig, the way he welcomed me but also gave me autonomy with the role and trusted me and really took a chance in saying, ‘Follow your instincts and do what you feel is right, I’ll support you in that. I’ll work around you,’ it was a dream scenario, I think, as a young actress,” says Anderson.
“That’s just me enjoying it,” says Brewer, who takes care to cast actors with equal parts talent and independence. “I just get out of their way, and every once in a while, maybe give them adjustment.”
In the film, Anderson and Hudson have great chemistry as daughter and mother. It helps that they also look quite a bit alike. “I was able to be immersed in how absorbed in the truth Kate was on set. That really helped me with how complicated a mother-daughter relationship can be, and the difficulties that they went through. … I think the [mother-daughter] roles are reversed a little bit, and at the right time, they reverse back. It’s situational. Who needs who the most? Which is why I admire this guy [Brewer] so much because the reality of life is one thing is not always one way and it is not stagnant. The person we knew when we were first introduced to them may be completely different from the one that we know at the end, and yet certain qualities may still be there.”
Mike and Claire first meet at a state fair tribute artist revue where they perform with other celebrity impersonators. Brewer noticed that his father-in-law Dick Hagee bears a striking resemblance to Willie Nelson and cast him as a background actor for the scene. “I impersonated an impersonator!” says Hagee. “I’ve been on a lot of sets with Craig, but I’ve never spent three whole days from morning till night with him. That experience, to me, was totally amazing, just watching everybody do their job. I’ve followed sports all my life, and you talk about basketball and football teams having coordination, but it’s nothing compared to this team. So many people working together!”
Like most Brewer films, Song Sung Blue is as much as a musical as it is a drama. Bomar says the music for the film was recorded here in Memphis with mostly Bluff City players, such as Susan Marshall. Jackman and Hudson sang the songs live on set. “I’m hearing Hugh and Kate sing ‘Sweet Caroline’ and the original version was recorded in Memphis. Now this version that we did for this film that’s getting played everywhere, it was recorded in Memphis as well! I met Chips Moman a few times later in his life. He’s one of my favorite record producers of all time, a big inspiration. That’s pretty cool for me.”
Bomar tracked down the guitarist who played on many early Diamond records, Richard Bennett, to reprise some of his work for the soundtrack. “He played the exact same guitar and the exact same effects pedal that he used on the Neil Diamond versions,” says Bomar.
During the monthlong promotional tour leading up to the film’s Christmas Day release, young actor Hudson Hensley, who played Claire’s son Dayna, recalled a moment when the crew were filming at the New Jersey house which stood in for Mike and Claire’s home in Milwaukee. They were trying to record a dialogue shot, but filming had to be paused because a high school marching band was rehearsing a few blocks away.
The song the band was playing? “Sweet Caroline.”
A Tearjerker, A Crowd-Pleaser
On December 8, 2025, the Song Sung Blue promo tour rolled through Memphis. Two screens at the Malco Paradiso were filled with “friends and family” who were among the first to see the film. It is a real crowd-pleaser, says Dick Hagee. “I’ve still got tears in my eyes, and not just the tragedy of it, but the connection of it, the love story.”
The next day, Brewer was in a reflective mood. “I thought it was a way to kind of get into the politics of the time without ever even addressing it,” he says. “Some people, maybe they’re uncomfortable with how optimistic I am, but I still believe we’ve forgotten our heart a little bit as a country. It’s an easy thing to go into cynicism, especially nowadays. But I do think there is still a uniquely specific American dream, and we’ve always had it. It’s like, ‘I’m going to build a railroad!’ Really? Yeah! ‘I’m going to start a computer company! Someday there’ll be all the music in the world in your phone!’ You really think you’re gonna do that? Yeah! There’s a sense that people dream so big — or as Mike said, ‘So huge!’ — that you think, well, you’re never going to really get that. But the journey ultimately elevates and maybe takes you to places you didn’t think you would go. I still think that’s alive today. I think we may have just forgotten it.
“Here in Memphis, you are surrounded by a lot of musicians who are in multiple bands. None of them are making money off of those bands. If anything, they’re probably going into the hole, if you look at time and efforts and everything. That’s really something I felt the movie could be about. I think we’ve kind of gotten away from the right kinds of expectations and goals we set for ourselves in terms of artistic success. I’ve made a lot of movies, I have a career, I can consider myself a successful filmmaker. But the way I became a successful filmmaker was being broke here in Memphis with a bunch of other broke musicians and saying, ‘Hey, what are we doing this weekend? Maybe we can make something.’ That is where I feel like I found myself. It’s in those spaces you can find what your voice is, and I’m worried that today there’s a little bit more of an emphasis on views and likes and ‘Are you selling out arena tours?’ and not necessarily, ‘I am healthy in my community of friends and family, and in the city I live in.’ Can you find your identity as an artist and do the music that you want to do or paint the paintings you want to paint? I think there needs to be a return to that being more of a victory than ‘great success,’ because it’s more attainable. You have a greater capacity for actual joy in that kind of scenario than you would from being the biggest and the most famous.”
Song Sung Blue opens on Christmas Day in theaters all over the country.