Cameron Crowe Gets Petty Again

Elizabethtown is Free Fallin'

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Wednesday, August 24th 2005 at 3:26 PM

Cameron Crowe had Tom Cruise singin' "Free Fallin'" in Jerry Maguire and it looks like Elizabethtown will once again experience the talent of the Heartbreakers as Tom Petty will see four of his songs featured in Oscar-nominated writer/director Cameron Crowe's upcoming feature, which stars Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon, set for release October 14, 2005.

Petty contributes two brand new Petty compositions, "Jack" and "Square One," as well as the Grammy nominated "Learning to Fly" from the 1991 "Into the Great Wide Open" album. Also, his track "It'll All Work Out" will be featured throughout the film as both instrumental and with vocals as a recurring theme incorporated into the story of an unexpected romance that blossoms between a young woman and man during an outrageous memorial for a Southern patriarch.

Crowe stated, "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are one of the very finest American bands of the last thirty years. I've always found Petty's music a powerful fit with the movies I've written or directed. Plus, as anybody who's ever put together a road-mix CD knows very well, no trip and no highway is quite the same without the Heartbreakers to set the mood. Petty was an early musical inspiration for 'Elizabethtown' with his great song 'It'll All Work Out.' It's only right that as the movie took shape, his songs landed perfectly again and again."

Petty and Crowe have collaborated on various projects over the years. Crowe wrote the first-ever Rolling Stone feature on Petty and the Heartbreakers as well as the liner notes for the CD "Anthology: Through the Years." In 1982, he made his directorial debut with the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers MTV special, "Heartbreakers' Beach Party." In addition, Petty's "American Girl" was featured in Crowe's first major film, the 1982 cult classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and "Free Fallin'" appeared in Crowe's 1996 blockbuster Jerry Maguire.