Penn Badgley Will Play Jeff Buckley in New Film

On Friday, co-producer Orian Williams shot down a report that Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley would play late singer Jeff Buckley in a biopic Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, has been planning for years. "Penn is not involved in the film at all," Williams told the Los Angeles Times. And he's still not! In that film. But Badgley has been cast as the iconic musician in Greetings from Tim Buckley.

Smuggler Films announced the casting on Monday evening, touting the project as the first about the late singer/songwriter and his singer/songwriter father, Tim. Shooting this August, Greetings will follow "the true story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley's eminent 1991 performance at his father's tribute concert in St. Ann's Church. Through a romance with a young woman working at the concert, he comes to understand the father who abandoned him. Culminating in a cathartic performance of his father's most famous songs, Jeff's debut stuns the audience and launches his career as one of the greatest young musicians of his time."

For his part, Badgley is pumped. "To play a man who was singularly gifted as an artist, greatly misunderstood & mythologized as a human being... It's something very special and sacred. I'm going to give all I can to this project."

So, not like his scenes opposite Jessica Szohr on Gossip Girl? Awesome.

· Penn Badgley to Play Singer Jeff Buckley in Biopic [Deadline]

[Photo: Getty Images]