Golden | Pharrell Williams biopic reportedly got "roaring applause" at test screening before Universal scrapped it

by Ryan Lambie | February 11, 2025

Now scrapped, Golden -- a biopic about Pharrell Williams directed by Michel Gondry -- was reportedly shown to an appreciative test audience.

When it was first reported that Universal Pictures had decided to permanently shelve Golden, a biopic about musician Pharrell Williams, the official line appeared to be that all involved agreed that it wasn't fixable in its current state.

A joint statement, attributed to Williams and director Michel Gondry, said that, "When all of us got into the editing room we collectively decided there wasn't a path forward to tell the version of this story that we originally envisioned."

According to World of Reel, however, Golden's scrappage may not have been a quality control issue after all. The outlet reports that, weeks before it was shelved, the musical drama was test screened for an audience in Pasadena, and that far from being a disaster, Golden was warmly received.

In fact, the brief quotes suggest that Golden falls in line with Gondry's imaginative, often technically ingenious earlier work, including Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind and The Science Of Sleep.

A movie-goer who saw Golden described it as "very creative," with "well thought-out and executed musical numbers." There's also talk of "big rotating sets," which sounds like exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a musical directed by Gondry, as well as "emotional solos and a big finale with crowds."

To cap it all, the starry cast -- which includes Bryan Tyree Henry and Da'Vine Joy Randolph -- are said to be excellent, and that, by the time the end credits rolled, the audience was "completely won over."

All of which makes *Golden'*s production story all the more strange. Universal had spent a reported $20m on the project up to the point it was axed. It's a film about a world-famous musician, with a high-profile cast and a respected French director. Shooting had already wrapped, and it was seemingly on track for a US cinema release on the 9th May.

Admittedly, *Golden'*s pre-production wasn't without incident. Theatre director turned filmmaker Michael Mayer worked on it for about seven years before Gondry stepped in as his replacement in March 2024. Still, filming went ahead and -- a title change from Atlantis to Golden aside -- all seemed to be running smoothly.

If the initial cut wasn't an unsalvageable disaster, as the initial statement from Universal suggested, then what was the real issue? We can only speculate. But given the scale of the production, it's likely we'll hear more details seep out of it over the coming weeks.