Ziggy Stardust is back, sort of.
David Bowie's new album is set to arrive on his 69th birthday in Jan. 8, as confirmed by The Rolling Stone last Oct. 25. The album will be called "★", which is pronounced as blackstar, and will be Bowie's 26th studio album. Clearly, there's no stopping for Ziggy.
Recently, the legendary singer released a haunting and spaced-out short-film in which he plays a doomed and blind prophet, as a promotion for his latest project. The singer's eyes seem to be covered with a bandage that has a stone for an eye. Watch the clip here.
The movie clip of "★" was directed by "The Last Panthers" director, Johan Renck. According to Rolling Stone, Bowie got inspired to write the song when he saw "The Last Panthers." Bowie and Renck met through connections when the director was looking for music to use in his movie. Renck also said that he thinks he started crying when Bowie called him for the first time. After bonding and talking and trading inspirations, it was decided that "★" would become the theme for the series.
Production began last July and the scenes were shot in New York and in Romania. Renck commented that Bowie was genuine, playful, smart, funny, profound and truthful. Some of the inspirations for the clip was an old cartoon sent to Renck by Bowie, which was believed to be Popeye. Renck recalled that the cartoon gave them some ideas on how they would shoot the scenes. Other inspirations for the video include Alejandro Jodorowsky, Aleksi German and Andrei Tarkovski's art-house movie directions.
Bowie was one of the most celebrated and influential artists back in the 70s. He is very well known in the field of music, painting and acting. Bowie's flamboyant and androgynous alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, became one of music's successful experimentation back in the glam rock era of the 70s. He is ranked 39 on the list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and is 23 on the best singers of all time list by the Rolling Stone.