Apple TV+ on Wednesday announced that it’s preparing to release a documentary film about U2 singer Bono’s one-man show from 2022, Stories of Surrender, which was a book and theatre tour in support of his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
But don’t worry: Apple won’t automatically push this film to everyone’s TV app a la Songs of Innocence, the U2 album that Apple controversially added to everyone’s iTunes library for free back in 2014.
The documentary, from director Andrew Dominik, will hit Apple TV+ on May 30, on the same day that an 8K, spatial audio version of the film is available to enjoy immersively via Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. In the Vision Pro version of the doc, viewers will essentially be onstage with Bono as he engages with the audience, thanks to the director having filmed in 180-degree video.
Apple further teases that Bono: Stories of Surrender is a “vivid reimagining” of Bono’s critically acclaimed one-man stage show. In it, “as he pulls back the curtain on a remarkable life and the family, friends and faith that have challenged and sustained him, he also reveals personal stories about his journey as a son, father, husband, activist, and rock star. Along with never-before-seen, exclusive footage from the Beacon Theatre shows, the film features Bono performing many of the iconic U2 songs that have shaped his life and legacy.”
Let me say a word about Dominik before I continue.
He directed a truly great Western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. A Western so good, in fact, that star Brad Pitt has said it’s his favorite movie he’s ever made. On the other hand, Dominik also directed Netflix’s Blonde, in which Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe — a total stinker that I described back in 2022 as one of the darkest, most lurid, and unsettling movies I’ve ever seen. So, we’ll see if he was the right director for this.
That said, I’m going to be checking this one out regardless, as a fan of both U2’s music and of how the band is constantly trying to stay on the cutting edge of technological innovation (their Las Vegas residency at the Sphere, which I attended and wrote about here, is another example of this). Along with the Apple TV+ documentary, an abridged and updated paperback edition of Bono’s bestselling memoir is also being released — it’s been refined to mirror the arc of the one-man show, and it’s getting a new film tie-in book cover as well as a fresh introduction from the singer.
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