Recently-formed production company Pfonetic, from Greg Richling and Jonathan Sheldon, slates a biopic on legendary Bob Dylan and Velvet Underground producer Tom Wilson.
Film producers and musicians Greg Richling and Jonathan Sheldon announce the launch of their newly-formed production company, Pfonetic. The company unveils an authorized biopic on influential producer Tom Wilson. The new project comes on the heels of the duo’s award-winning rock documentary, “Immediate Family,” to Magnolia Pictures.
Tom Wilson, an incredibly influential but largely unsung producer, is known for producing Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence, the first Velvet Underground album, and recordings by John Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Sun Ra, and many more.
“Pfonetic is a place where we can develop IP from the ground up as we just did for ‘Immediate Family,’ and also (to) field work from the studios to oversee high-level music needs on their projects, handling the creative and business side in tandem,” says Richling, a veteran filmmaker and longtime member of the Wallflowers, the band headed by Bob Dylan’s son, Jakob.
“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,” adds Sheldon.
Other projects in film and television that Pfonetic currently has in production include “Restless — The Bob James Story,” about the legendary jazz musician, with Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgenson directing; “Singers Night,” a singing competition with executive producer Jeff Gaspin; “Here to Eternity: Collective Soul,” reflections from the ’90s rockers on their rise throughout their 30-year career; an untitled documentary on Steely Dan recording engineer Roger Nichols, a nuclear scientist turned audio wizard for Becker and Fagen, some of the most notoriously “sonically perfectionist” artists in the industry.
“Immediate Family” was directed by Denny Tedesco and serves as the follow-up to the “Wrecking Crew” documentary, which focused on the legendary session musicians of the 1960s. “Immediate Family” focuses on the musicians who crafted the singer-songwriter sound of the early ’70s, with interviews from stars like Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, and Phil Collins. Magnolia Distribution slated the film for a theatrical release in December 2023.