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'Gossip Girl' Actor Penn Badgley to Play Jeff Buckley in New Film

Mick Hutson, Redferns | Evan Agostini, AP

As Spinner recently reported, speculation has surrounded the Jake Scott-directed Jeff Buckley biopic that is finally in the works with several stars vying for the role of the late iconic singer, including James Franco and 'Twilight' star Robert Pattison, who even went as far as meeting with Buckley's mother.

However, our colleagues at the Huffington Post have reported that 'Gossip Girl's' Penn Badgley has been picked to play Buckley in an upcoming film that isn't Scott's project.

"To play a man who was singularly gifted as an artist, greatly misunderstood and mythologized as a human being ... it's something very special and sacred. I'm going to give all I can to this project," Badgley said in a press release from Smuggler Films.

Written and directed by Dan Algrant with Emma Sheanshang and David Brendel, 'Greetings From Tim Buckley' will follow the folk singer's son on his quest to know the father that abandoned him, culminating in Jeff's 1991 performance of the elder Buckley's songs at his father's funeral. Badgley has previously starred in 'John Tucker Must Die' and 'Easy A.'

Jeff Buckley drowned in 1997 while swimming in the Wolf River in Tennessee and had released only one proper album, 'Grace,' which is considered a modern classic by many.

'Greetings From Tim Buckley' is currently in pre-production and is scheduled to begin filming in August. There have been many strong opinions about who should play the singer, due to the nature of his death and the mythology that he left behind. Do you think Badgley is the right pick for the film?

Watch Jeff Buckley Perform 'Last Goodbye' Live

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