Cameron Crowe Set to Keynote Variety’s Music for Screens Summit

Chris Willman

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Filmmaker Cameron Crowe has joined the lineup for Variety‘s second annual Music for Screens Summit, where he’s set for a keynote interview to discuss adapting his Oscar-winning “Almost Famous” into a newly premiered and already highly praised stage musical.

Crowe, who’s also responsible for directing and/or writing such music-heavy films as “Say Anything” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics (with Tony winner Tom Kitt) for the new adaptation of “Almost Famous,” which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in late September. The show will have just wrapped up its limited Southern California run when Crowe appears at the summit, with a move to Broadway believed to be on the horizon.

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Crowe joins previously announced keynote speaker Robbie Robertson at the day-long conference, which will take place at Neuehouse in Hollywood Oct. 29. Ticket information for the summit, which is aimed at the creators and greenlighters working at the intersection of music and visual media, can be found here.

Besides Crowe, the second wave of speakers to be announced for the confab includes composer Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir, who just won an Emmy for “Chernobyl” and scored the blockbuster “Joker”; Tom Mackay, Sony Music’s president of film and television A&R; and music supervisor Kier Lehman, who works on shows like “Insecure” and “Queen & Slim.”

Additional recently added speakers include songwriter and producer Savan Kotecha; Daniel Kuypers, SVP & executive director of music for Energy BBDO; Dave Curtin, SVP of licensing & branded content for Paradigm; Mary Rahmani, director of music content & artist relations for TikTok; Pat Shah, Twitch’s head of music strategy & licensing; Alexandra Nickson, SVP of TV music for Dreamworks Animation; Doreen Ringer-Ross, BMI’s creative relations VP; Mary Ramos, the music supervisor for “Once a Time in Hollywood”; and Thomas Golubic, the music supervisor for “Better Call Saul.”

Scheduled panels at the summit include “Anatomy of an Original Song Campaign,” “Sonic Storytelling for Brands” and “The State of Music Supervision.”

This second wave of speakers joins previously announced panelists like songwriter Diane Warren; Chris Taylor, the global president of music at eOne; Marni Condro, SVP of film and television for the Universal Music Publishing Group; and Omar Grant, co-president of Roc Nation Records. Robbie Robertson will discuss his work on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” as well as a recently released documentary, “Once Were Brothers,” in which he recounts his history with the Band.

ASCAP will present a composers’ roundtable featuring Michael Abels (“Us”), Christophe Beck (“Frozen 2”), Nicholas Britell (“Succession”), Amie Doherty (“Undone”), Siddhartha Khosla (“This is Us”) and Alan Silvestri (“Avengers: Endgame”).

“Variety is thrilled to be leading the conversation about the critical intersection of visual storytelling and music,” says Michelle Sobrino, the group publisher & chief revenue officer of Variety and IndieWire. “We are excited to hear perspectives from all areas of this industry spanning composers, music supervisors, songwriters, and from executive leaders at the studios, networks, record labels and music publishers.”

“Music is a core ingredient of compelling stories on screens large and small,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. “ASCAP is thrilled to partner with Variety for the Music for Screens Summit, which shines a spotlight on the contributions of composers and is a unique opportunity for the music communities around film, TV and video games to explore the opportunities at the intersection of music and visual media.”

Music for Screens’ premier partners are ASCAP and PepsiCo, with music powered by Audio Network and Entertainment One.

For additional information, visit variety.com/musicsummit.

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