Neil Young has kept a pretty low profile over the past year, but it turns out that at least for some of that time he was working on a western movie, Paradox, that will premiere at South By Southwest in March. The film was directed by Daryl Hannah. Young stars alongside Willie Nelson, Micah Nelson, Lucas Nelson and members of his backing band, Promise of the Real.
“Time is fluid in this far-fetched, whimsical western tale of music and love,” reads a brief plot description released by the filmmakers. “Somewhere in the future past, The Man In the Black Hat hides out between heists at an old stagecoach stop with Jail Time, the Particle Kid, and an odd band of outlaws. Mining the detritus of past civilizations, they wait… for the Silver Eagle, for the womenfolk, and for the full moon’s magic to give rise to the music and make the spirits fly.”
The Neil Young fan website Thrasher’s Wheat points out work on the film stretches back at least September of 2016 when Neil Young and Promise of the Real performed in Telluride, Colorado in vintage western costumes. The film will be Daryl Hannah’s first feature-length film as a director, though she did direct Young’s Somewhere In Canada webcast in Omemee, Ontario late last year and the 1993 short The Last Supper. Young has a long history of filmmaking stretching back to 1972’s Journey Through The Past, though he rarely acts in movies that he hasn’t directed himself.
Paradox is not the only project on the horizon for Young in 2018. He’s overseeing a slew of archival releases that include his legendary Tonight’s The Night stand at L.A.’s Roxy 1973 and a compilation of live cuts taped on Crazy Horse’s 2012/13 Alchemy tour. He’s also pledged to return to the road in the latter half of 2018, but it is unclear if he will perform solo, with Promise of the Real or with another backing group.
