Nelly has been cast as rock’n’roll legend Chuck Berry in a forthcoming film about Buddy Holly, Variety reports and Pitchfork can confirm. The film, titled Clear Lake, will also star Colin Hanks and Diane Guerrero, as well as Ruairi O’Connor taking on the role of Buddy Holly.
Directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Double Jeopardy), Clear Lake will focus on Holly and his rock’n’roll contemporaries in the 1950s, framed within the changing climate of the Civil Rights movement. Hanks will star as Holly’s manager Norman Petty, while Guerrero (Orange Is the New Black) will portray Holly’s wife, Maria Elena Holly.
In 2010, Nelly and Chuck Berry (both from St. Louis) played a free concert in their home city. Chuck Berry died in 2017 at the age of 90. Revisit “Chuck Berry Was the Sound of 20th Century America” over on the Pitch.
