David Byrne Pens Oscar-Qualifying Song for ‘Musk’ Documentary

David Byrne wrote a song about the world’s richest man.

The Talking Heads frontman wrote and performed an original song for “Musk,” Alex Gibney‘s sprawling documentary reckoning with Elon Musk, Variety can exclusively reveal. Titled “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” the track plays within the 235-minute film and arrives as an Oscar-qualifying entry in the best original song race.

Byrne wrote the song with the documentary’s composer Daniel Pemberton, the Oscar-nominated musician behind “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

“I was thrilled when David agreed to write (with our composer Daniel Pemberton) and perform the final song in the film,” Gibney says. “I am a huge fan of his. My wife and I were at the Pantages for the filming of ‘Stop Making Sense,’ so I sensed that he would find a musical way into what the film is trying to say. And he did. ‘Let Me Sell You a Dream’ is kick-ass. And, in writing the lyrics, David dug deep into the sayings of Musk himself to get to ‘extremely hard core,’ foot-tapping sardonic poetry.”

For Byrne, the lyrics required little invention. “A thrill to collaborate with Pemberton and get invited to do this as a fan of Gibney’s films,” he says. “I asked for good quotes from the Martian, and found more of them online. I’m sure he loves dropping these wild statements, and those became the lyrics. All his own words. No editorializing. Straight from the man’s mouth to mine.”

For Byrne, the collaboration reopens a door he last walked through nearly four decades ago. He won the Academy Award for best original score for “The Last Emperor” in 1988, sharing the honor with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su. A nomination for “Let Me Sell You a Dream” would mark his first return to the Oscar race since. Pemberton earned a best original song nod in 2021 for “Hear My Voice,” co-written with Celeste for “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The song will be entered for best original song at the 2027 Oscars by way of the film’s theatrical run. Bleecker Street releases “Musk” in U.S. theaters on Oct. 16, a berth that clears the category’s eligibility requirements.

Early buzz surrounding the film, described in some quarters as “scathing” and billed by Gibney himself as a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the businessman, has been strong. “Musk” world premieres out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 8 before continuing to the Toronto International Film Festival. At just shy of four hours, it stands among the most ambitious nonfiction portraits of Gibney’s career.

Gibney first revealed in March 2023 that he had begun work on the documentary and was “many months” into production. Musk responded to news of the project on his X/Twitter account by predicting it would be “a hit-piece.” Gibney fired back on the same platform, asking “how would you know?”

Gibney directs and produces “Musk,” joined by Jessie Deeter and Erin Edeiken for Jigsaw Productions, Dana O’Keefe for Double Agent, Joey Marra and Zhang Xin for Closer Media and Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker and Jessica Grimshaw. Ronan Farrow and Lawrence Wright round out the producing team.