They’re Making a Carman Movie

As I watched the first season of Apple TV’s Sugar, I kept thinking in the back of my mind that Colin Farrell would be perfect casting for a Carman biopic. I even mentioned that when I posted my review on social media.

Carman was one of the biggest Christian artists of all time, releasing a string of hit records and performing to packed venues around the world before his death in 2021. Indeed, if you grew up in church circles during the ’80s and ’90s, Carman’s music and influence was impossible to ignore, for better or worse. And shortly after cracking my joke about Farrell as Mr. Licciardello, I discovered that a film production company called Vale Vision is, in fact, making a movie about Carman’s music and career.

Carman: The Movie is currently in pre-production, with Joe Chambrello playing the titular role. Chambrello previously portrayed Carman in 2024’s Unsung Hero, a Christian biopic about the Smallbone family (For King & Country, Rebecca St. James), and his other credits include Euphoria, The Equalizer, and 9 – 1-1: Lone Star. The Carman film also stars Jeremy Luke as Carman’s older brother Mario and Quinton Aaron as Andraé Crouch, Carman’s musical mentor. Here’s the official synopsis:

A street-fighting Italian kid who grew up in New Jersey in the 1960s becomes Christian music’s biggest performer. This is the incredible true story of Carman Licciardello. From rough beginnings to sold-out arenas, from controversy to conviction, CARMAN: The Movie tells the story behind one of the most passionate and influential figures in Christian music history.

Being an ’80s church kid myself, I can’t help but be intrigued by this. The above trailer is clearly a pre-production teaser, though, so it’s still an open question as to how the film will capture Carman’s massive, theatrical concerts. I saw him perform on several occasions back in the day, and a Carman concert was decidedly not a small production. There’s no real sense of that in the teaser, though I did chuckle at the end bit concerning Carman’s… um… questionable lyrics.