The Sparks Brothers
The Sparks Brothers is a 2021 documentary film about Ron and Russell Mael, members of the pop and rock duo Sparks. The film, directed by Edgar Wright, and produced by Wright, Nira Park, George Hencken and Laura Richardson, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released the following summer. It received critical acclaim.
Summary
The documentary features lengthy interviews with Ron and Russell Mael, along with short interviews with musicians, record producers who collaborated with the band, previous members of the group who worked with the Maels in the various Sparks line-ups from the early 1970s until the early 2020s, as well as a number of fans. The documentary also includes several short animation sequences to reproduce apocryphal anecdotes between musicians with the participation of comedians and frequent Wright collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.Participants
- Ron Mael
- Russell Mael
- Edgar Wright
- Beck
- Roddy Bottum
- Jane Wiedlin
- Flea
- Steve Jones
- Alex Kapranos
- Stephen Morris
- Gillian Gilbert
- Vince Clarke
- Andy Bell
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Thurston Moore
- James Lowe
- Nick Rhodes
- John Taylor
- Martyn Ware
- Björk
- Nick Heyward
- Muff Winwood
- David Weigel
- Pamela Des Barres
- Hilly Michaels
- Bernard Butler
- Jack Antonoff
- Todd Rundgren
- Giorgio Moroder
- Tony Visconti
- Dean Menta
- Les Bohem
- Christi Haydon
- Harley Feinstein
- Jonathan Ross
- Paul Morley
- Katie Puckrik
- Adam Buxton
- Neil Gaiman
- Tosh Berman
- Jason Schwartzman
- Mark Gatiss
- Mike Myers
- Fred Armisen
- Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino
- Scott Aukerman
- Patton Oswalt
- Simon Pegg as the voice of John Lennon
- Nick Frost as the voice of Ringo Starr
Production
In June 2018, it was announced Wright would direct an untitled documentary film revolving around the band Sparks, with MRC Non-Fiction and Complete Fiction Pictures producing the film.Principal photography began in May 2018, with Jake Polonsky as cinematographer, beginning with covering the band's concert at the O2 Forum Kentish Town. In April 2020, Wright announced that the film was "nearly finished".