Legendary musician Buddy Holly is getting a new movie, as Driving Miss Daisy director Bruce Beresford has signed on to helm the upcoming biopic Clear Lake. Known for his many classic rock 'n' roll hits like "Rave On," "Peggy Sue," and "Oh Boy," Holly quickly became one of the world's most famous musicians of the 1950's, establishing a powerful legacy that endures to this day. Sadly, Holly perished at the age of 22 along with pilot Roger Peterson and fellow singers Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper when their plane crashed into a remote field near Clear Lake, Iowa, and the date has since been dubbed as the "Day the Music Died."

Clear Lake is based on a screenplay by Patrick Shanahan with the complete blessing of Holly's family. The movie will "open with Holly's teen years, then portray his 1958 Biggest Show of Stars tour with Clarence Collins, founder of Little Anthony & the Imperials, as they broke racial barriers by performing together across the U.S. in 1958." We can also presume the tragic way Holly's life and career came to a sudden end will also be touched on in the story. Ray and La Bamba producer Stuart Benjamin will also be developing Clear Lake alongside the Buddy Holly estate, with the late singer's widow Maria Elena Holly serving as an associate producer.

"I found myself attracted to Clear Lake because the script tells the tragic story of Buddy Holly and his era in fascinating detail and with vivid characterizations. Needless to say, the added plus of all the wonderful music was also a major lure," Bruce Beresford says of his role in directing the upcoming biopic. Clearly, the filmmaker is stepping in as a big fan of Holly, and he's far from the only one to continue to celebrate the late musician's legacy over six decades past his untimely death. Holly was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake continues to host tribute shows for Holly and the other victims of his fatal plane crash every year on the anniversary of their final show.

The casting process for Clear Lake has begun by way of virtual auditions, but as of now, there's no word on who may potentially play the famous rocker this time around. He was perhaps most famously portrayed by Gary Busey in the 1978 biopic The Buddy Holly Story, and although Busey's performance was praised, the movie drew criticism from fans and the Holly estate for its many inaccuracies. Marshall Crenshaw would later play Buddy in the Ritchie Bamba biopic La Bamba and Frankie Muniz would again portray the "That'll Be the Day" singer in the John C. Reilly comedy movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

This news of Holly getting a new biopic also follows reports of many other famous musicians from years past getting new movies about their lives. The trend seems to be increasing based upon the success of recent musician biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, as multiple new projects based on other legendary singers are also in the works. This includes planned movies based on artists like Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, and Bob Dylan, and a Janet Jackson biopic is also rumored to be happening. Let's just hope Clear Lake serves as a better representation of the real Buddy Holly story than The Buddy Holly Story.

This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.