A New Movie About Paul Simon Making ‘Graceland’ Is Coming

The complex story of how Paul Simon made his 1986 album, “Graceland,” working with South African musicians at the time of Anti-Apartheid boycotts, has always been worthy of a movie adaptation. And now, finally, one is coming.

The movie, “The Road Home,” will be directed by Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls,” “Kinsey,” “Chicago,” “Gods and Monsters”) and is slated to start shooting in South Africa this June.

Actor Johnny Flynn (“Emma”) will play Jewish musician Simon and the film will follow him making his sixth studio album at a time of great personal upheaval (another fallout with Art Garfunkel, his breakup with Carrie Fisher and the commercial failure of his previous solo album).

Cynthia Erivo will play singer Miriam Makeba, known as “Mama Africa” (recently made into a viral hit thanks to a song by French artist Jain), who helped launch the “Graceland” tour.

South African actor Thabo Rametsi will play “father of South African jazz” trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In the film, Masekela is torn between his collaboration with Simon and his loyalty to his friend Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (played by Guy Pearce), a leader in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, who accused Simon of violating the United Nations’ Cultural Boycott of South Africa.

The movie is the product of a six-year collaboration spearheaded by the Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation. The foundation approached writer Michael Bronner to write the script; before his death, Masekela approached Zakes Mda to write a movie about Huddleston, and the script credit is shared between him and Bronner.

“It’s a story of an incredible resistance and resilience that this country and these people have had,” Condon told Variety. “What’s so interesting about this film is that it [shows] two forces on the same side. They both want to bring down its regime.”

Flynn, who is not Jewish, has a connection to Simon: He opened for the singer with his band Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit in 2018. Flynn was also born in South Africa and his family and parents supported the Anti-Apartheid Movement, which gives him a special connection to this project. “The music of South Africa – and especially that of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba IS the sound of my childhood,” Flynn told Deadline.

Over on X, some have shared their dismay at Flynn’s casting, saying the tall British actor looks nothing like Simon. Flynn has also previously played David Bowie in the largely panned “Stardust.” This won’t be the first time Flynn has played a Jewish character — he’s previously played young Albert Einstein in the series “Genius,” and he also played Holocaust hero Nicholas Winton in the film “One Life.” 

As a pretty big fan of Flynn as both a musician and an actor, I’m also torn about this casting, even if it likely won’t stop me from watching the film. The movie also comes at a fascinating time, when there is so much controversy around BDS and cultural boycotts of Israel in present day.

Condon has stressed that the film is not a Paul Simon biopic in any shape or form. “It’s about all of these forces converging over one issue: that Paul Simon went to South Africa to work with local musicians on that classic album, ‘Graceland,’ and in so doing was seen to be sort of breaking the anti-apartheid boycott,” he said. “I think he would disagree with that, because he wasn’t paid, but that became a hugely controversial issue for some people.”