Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson Form Ultimate Feel-Good Neil Diamond Tribute Band in First ‘Song Sung Blue’ Trailer

First things first: Lightning & Thunder are not a Neil Diamond cover band, they are Diamond “interpreters.” That’s what a Hugh Jackman‘s Mike Sardina learns from Kate Hudson‘s Claire Stengl in the first trailer for the pair’s upcoming holiday feel-good movie Song Sung Blue.

The pairing of the actors who both have deep musical experience — Jackman in a number of Broadway musicals and Hudson via her 2024 album Glorious — comes in a film telling the real-life story of two struggling musicians who find their special purpose when they form a Diamond-covering duo.

“I’m not a songwriter, I’m not a sex symbol — I just want to entertain people,” Jackman’s Sardina tells Hudson’s Stengl in the sneak peek of the film from writer-director Craig Brewer (Coming 2 America). “I don’t wanna be a hairdresser,” Stengl tells him. “I wanna sing, I wanna dance, I wanna garden, I want a cat.”

Desperate for something “big” and “new,” Sardina picks up a copy of Diamond’s 1972 Moods album, which, of course, features the singer’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Song Sung Blue,” with Stengl counseling that Sardina doesn’t want to be a mere Diamond impersonator. “You want to be a Neil Diamond interpreter,” she says. That is all it takes for the duo to find their groove, as Hudson’s character starts to beat out the melody of “Cherry Cherry” on the piano while Jackman strums along on an acoustic guitar.

The movie is based on a 2008 documentary of the same name telling the story of a Milwaukee husband and wife duo, Mike and Claire Sardina, who formed the Diamond tribute act Lighting & Thunder. “Based on a true story, two down-on-their-luck musicians form a joyous Neil Diamond tribute band, proving it’s never too late to find love and follow your dreams,” reads the synopsis of the film.

The movie duo happen upon the same clever moniker inspiring Stengl to lay a big kiss on Sardina. The inspiring story of their duo — complete with a leaf blower to make Sardina’s hair blow just right inside the clubs they play — has the requisite overload of sequins, sing-alongs to “Sweet Caroline” and a river of joyful (and painful) tears as Jackman’s Sardina tells Stengl she is his “August Night, my September Morn, you’re my Cracklin’ Rosie.”

The film due out on Dec. 25 co-stars Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, musician King Princess, (in her first movie role) Mustafa Shakir, Hudson Hensley, Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi.

Hudson posted the trailer on her Instagram on Tuesday morning (Sept. 9), writing, “At its core, this film is about love. About the dreams we chase, the chances we take, and the families who hold us together. It’s about the music that gets us through. Opening Christmas Day! We can’t wait to share it with you 🎶.”

Watch the Song Sung Blue trailer below.