The last few years have been a whirlwind for Warren Zanes, author of Deliver Me from Nowhere, the inspiration for Scott Cooper's Bruce Springsteen biopic of the same name.
It's already an honor to have your book be the inspiration for a biopic, let alone the definitive one for Bruce-freaking-Springsteen. Deliver Me from Nowhere's journey to the big screen began shortly after Zanes' book came out in 2023.
“[Producer] Eric Robinson sent me an email two months after the book had come out because he heard me on Marc Maron's podcast, got the book, read it, [and he] sends me an email that said, ‘Dear Dr. Zanes,' and he went on to say that he felt like there was a movie in it,” Zanes recalled.
Granted, Zanes wasn't writing Deliver Me from Nowhere to spawn the definitive Springsteen biopic. Really, he wanted to figure out why Springsteen — hot off his first No.1 album in The River — decided to make a solo acoustic record like Nebraska.
The story is aided by Springsteen, whom Zanes interviewed extensively. Zanes even visited the famed New Jersey house where Springsteen recorded Nebraska.
Why was Deliver Me from Nowhere adapted as the definitive Bruce Springsteen biopic?
Even if it wasn't his intention, Zanes' material was ripe for the picking for a Springsteen biopic. Springsteen's career has evolved from being a member of various Asbury Park bands to his clash with Columbia over Darkness on the Edge of Town to his E Street Band breakup and subsequent reunion in the '90s. You could pick practically any point in his career and justify making a movie out of it.
So why Deliver Me from Nowhere? “It wasn't a heroic tale in the conventional sense,” Zanes explained. “This wasn't about someone's rise to a position of heightened greatness.
“This was about a man coming apart. In my own observation of human life, I think the most interesting moments are the moments when everything falls apart. That's the title of Chinua [Achebe's] great novel, and he got it from, if I'm not mistaken, a William Butler Yeats poem. When things fall apart, the crossroads that define that moment are a crossroads of either an end or a new beginning,” he continued.
Sometimes, it takes being knocked down to reach greater heights. In Deliver Me from Nowhere, Springsteen is at a crossroads. He is hot off his first No.1 album (The River) and its subsequent tour. However, despite Columbia's desires, Springsteen doesn't want to go commercial with his next album. Instead, he is determined to make a solo record: Nebraska.
What got The Boss on board?
Nebraska may not be every Springsteen fan's favorite album, but its power is undeniable. Without it, there would be no Born in the U.S.A. The title track spawned from a demo meant for the soundtrack of Paul Schrader's Light of Day movie, which originally shared its working title with Springsteen's now iconic track.
That turnaround and rise from the ashes inspired Zanes to write Deliver Me from Nowhere, and it caught the eyes of The Boss and Scott Cooper. Springsteen seemingly liked the idea of his biopic not being a career-spanning jukebox experience. Instead, he solely focuses on the Nebraska era.
“That made Bruce Springsteen, if I can speculate for a moment, say yes to this [biopic],” said Zanes. “It was an unconventional move and it told sold human truths that otherwise get the space they need to if you go for the more conventional hero story.”
Luckily, getting Springsteen to participate in Zanes' Deliver Me from Nowhere book took less convincing a few years earlier. “He had an author come to him and say, ‘I think this might be your most important album, and I wanna write a book about it,'” recalled Zanes.
The idea of a hero can vary as well. As the multi-talented Zanes — who has a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies — explains, Joseph Campbell's hero mythology involves “being lost before being found.”
That is how most biopics operate. However, Deliver Me from Nowhere, while it implies Springsteen's next step to superstardom with Born in the U.S.A., doesn't make that its crescendo.
In a fittingly Springsteen way, the movie ultimately ends with him “coming through it and then getting dressed and going to work,” something he has continued to do in the four decades since Nebraska came out.
Warren Zanes has been loving the reactions to Deliver Me from Nowhere
It has been gratifying for Zanes to see people's reactions to the Springsteen biopic, especially his loved ones. The film premiered at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival before screening at other festivals like the New York Film Festival (NYFF) and others.
He first watched it alone (with a security guard), which was a treat since he loves eating Dots during movies. However, Deliver Me from Nowhere had him gripped — “I didn't touch my Dots,” he quipped.
Zanes then took one of his sons, Lucian, to the Telluride premiere. He then took his other son, Piero, to a Springsteen-hosted screening. Finally, Zanes took his girlfriend, Jamie, to the NYFF screening.
“A big part of this is going with the people that I love, and sharing that this happened. It is, for a writer, a somewhat unthinkable proposition,” he gushed. “First of all, for a book to be turned into a movie, that's a remarkable thing. The more remarkable thing is for that to be a good experience.
“This was not just a good experience, this was a great experience,” he continued.
Entrusting Scott Cooper
Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) and Springsteen played a big role in Deliver Me from Nowhere's success, and they — along with Cooper — gave Zanes a “space” in the filmmaking process.
“These guys made a space for me in the process that is not a given for writers,” revealed Zanes. “I tried to respect that space. Bruce made a record, I wrote a book about it, and now it was Scott's turn.”
He didn't want to get “in the way” of Cooper's process. Zanes had to entrust his baby to Cooper, and it paid off. It was a no-brainer to trust Cooper, though, whose past work spoke for itself.
“His films told me that I was in good hands,” Zanes admitted. “What I saw at the end of the process confirmed that that was the case.”
In fact, Zanes wasn't fearful at all about handing the reins to Cooper. It helped that he spent several months working through the story with Cooper, Springsteen, and Jon Landau.
The first meeting was a three-hour sit-down with Springsteen and Landau on the Jersey Shore. Then, they met at Springsteen's house in Colts Neck, New Jersey, with Cooper, who read an early version of the script. “He did all the characters,” Zanes detailed.
This was the second time Cooper had met Springsteen. Zanes applauds the courage it takes to perform a script about The Boss' life for The Boss himself. “That takes a pretty sturdy character to read a script about Bruce Springsteen's life to Bruce Springsteen and you're meeting him for the second time,” praised Zanes.
What was Warren Zanes' ‘space' on set?
As Zanes noted, he was given a role in the production of Deliver Me from Nowhere. He spoke with Cooper on a near-daily basis, observing who he called an “obsessive artist.” Cooper would frequently send Zanes' revisions of the script, and he would give notes in response.
“I was learning a tremendous amount, and I was also finding the line of where my input was helpful, and where I might be getting in the way of his creative process,” he recounted.
One place he deferred to the experts was casting. Cooper has a history of working with A-listers for his movies, like Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart and Christian Bale in The Pale Blue Eyes.
Jeremy Strong nailed Jon Landau
Being on set every day, Zanes got to see White embody Springsteen, which is a tall task. While the performances were mesmerizing, Zanes was most touched by the dynamic between White and Jeremy Strong, who plays Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau.
“I saw the chemistry that I knew between Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau embodied in the interactions of these two actors,” Zanes said of the acclaimed actors. “That blew my mind because that's not [something] you can study. As actors, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong are very different in how they approach their craft. But some linkage between the way they approached their craft was taking place in front of me. The result was the chemistry that I knew between Bruce and Jon.”
Seeing White and Strong's performances was emotional for Zanes; “It brought tears to my eyes,” he remembered. He thinks those in the music industry could learn a thing or two from their dynamic.
Strong also nailed a key component of Landau as a manager. ” Jon Landau has a capacity to know when it's a business day or a human day. And then in addition, when it's a day to just let Bruce do what Bruce does,” Zanes explained. “He's got the sensitivity to allow for all three possibilities.”
The Electric Nebraska you may never hear
Deliver Me from Nowhere is a celebration of Springsteen's Nebraska album. To coincide with the release of the movie, a box set — featuring the long-fabled Electric Nebraska — was released on Oct. 24.
It features nine demos/outtakes and eight Electric Nebraska tracks, none of which were previously released. This comes shortly after Springsteen found these Electric Nebraska songs in the vault.
However, there is a third version of Nebraska that isn't featured here. It's something in between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A., and doesn't feature the full E Street Band.
“The tracks that I see as Electric Nebraska are not Born in the U.S.A. and they're not Nebraska,” Zanes detailed, “they're a third thing. And there are these tracks where it's mostly a three-piece combo — it's not the full E Street Band. There's some [with the full band], but there are those core tracks that are really just Bruce, Max [Weinberg], either Gary [Tallent] or Roy [Bittan].”
These tracks are still “stripped back” like Nebraska, but they have what Zanes described as a “rockabilly feel.” So, it features the “timelessness of Nebraska, but it's recorded so differently.”
Bridging the gap for fans
As a historian, Zanes is thrilled to see the box set released. It may help bridge the gap between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. in a way that fans have never heard.
“The takeaway was at this moment in time where Bruce is coming into some real human trouble, he nonetheless has three powerful possibilities in front of him — three records he could take to his next record,” Zanes explained. “One of 'em is Born in the U.S.A., one of 'em is this other thing that we call Electric Nebraska, and then he's got the bedroom demos.
“Any one of those would have been a great album, and he chose the one that was the farthest removed from the marketplace because it had the most truth to [it],” he concluded.
Will fans ever get to hear the “rockabilly” tracks Zanes detailed? Well, it only took 43 years to get this version of Electric Nebraska. Perhaps someday, Springsteen will open the vault once more.
Deliver Me from Nowhere is in theaters.
