Warren Fu directed via production house Partizan Entertainment this music video for Tom Petty’s “Something Could Happen” starring Lauren Cohan (of Walking Dead fame) as a woman whose memories return in physical form to bring magic back to her life.
Fu explained, “I wanted to create another modern fairytale in the spirit of Tom’s music video for ‘Into The Great Wide Open.’ In our story, we have a character that is an incarnation of memories reassembled into a living creature, trying to make its way back home.”
Warren wrote the script, hand-drew the art for the character “Tiny” and stepped in to play the role of “Biggie,” receiving feedback and input from Tom’s daughter Adria throughout the entire process. He recounted, “‘Something Could Happen’ is such a beautiful heartfelt song, but on an early call Adria talked about her dad’s unique sense of humor and it would be great if the video reflected that side of him. So it was that discussion that helped free my mind to go offbeat with the story. When Tom’s fans watch this video, I hope they feel the same way I felt hearing the song for the first time: something new, yet something nostalgic and familiar.”
Hints of Tom Petty’s presence are also felt in Easter eggs throughout the video: The skywriting heart from “Free Fallin’,” a crown for “It’s Good To Be King,” a dog collar with an “R” in a nod to Tom’s dog Ryder, the slow dance dip from “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” the Alice and the Mad Hatter hat from “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” and the storybook motif from “Into The Great Wide Open.”
Sprinkling these elements into the overarching story, Fu said the message he aims to convey is, “That all our experiences–the good, the bad, the beautiful and the painful–make us who we are and we should embrace them. Tom never compromised his artistic integrity and always stayed true to who he was, so I feel like our message in this video is in line with his spirit.”
