Biopic
Jeff Buckley Biopic in the Works with Full Approval of Musician’s Estate
A new biopic about Jeff Buckley in development with the full support of the late musician’s estate. It’s titled Everybody Here Wants You and will star Reeve Carney in the lead role. Orian Williams will helm the project, marking his directorial debut. Carney is perhaps best known for playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Broadway staging of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. He also had a reoccurring role in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful. Williams, meanwhile, is an Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated producer, who previously helped bring the story of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis to the screen with the 2007 film Control. This will mark his first in the director’s chair, however. According to Variety, Everybody Here Wants You has the full support of Jeff Buckley’s estate and will have access...
Disgraced Director Brett Ratner to Attempt Comeback with Biopic on Disgraced Duo Milli Vanilli
Filmmaker Brett Ratner, disgraced following sexual misconduct allegations, is attempting a comeback with a biopic on Milli Vanilli, disgraced after an infamous lip-syncing scandal. Deadline reports that Millennium Media (The Expendables, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) has joined Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment in developing the project. The film would mark Ratner’s first directing gig since 2014’s Dwayne Johnson vehicle Hercules. Ratner hasn’t been heard from much since 2017 when a number of women stepped forward with accusations of sexual misconduct and assault. Olivia Munn said the filmmaker had masturbated in front of her and boasted of ejaculating on pictures of her while on set of 2004’s After the Sunset. Natasha Henstridge accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at a part...
Jonny Greenwood to Score New Princess Diana Biopic Starring Kristen Stewart
Two icons known for bucking tradition and wearing bangs have been united at last. As The Film Stage reports, Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood will score the new film Spencer about Diana Frances Spencer, better known as Diana, Princess of Wales. It’s directed by Pablo Larrain and stars Kristen Stewart as the titular hero. The tale takes place over a Christmas weekend in December of 1991. Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles is imploding amidst rumors of his infidelities, and in 1992 they will separate. Spencer is set just before the separation, as a deeply-unhappy princess makes up her mind to leave. Filming has begun, and the movie is expected to bow sometime in the fall of 2021. In a statement, Stewart said, “Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pi...
Sheila E. Announces New Biopic About Her Relationship With Prince
Sheila E. (photo via Wikipedia) and Prince (photo via Warner Bros.) Sheila E. has announced that she’s making a biopic about her relationship with Prince. In a very brief Facebook post, The Queen of Percussion shared the name of the film and insinuated that it will arrive in the not-too-distant future. “Coming soon…Sheila E. to release ‘Girl Meets Boy’, a film telling the beautiful story of her time with Prince. Stay Tuned.” The “Glamorous Life” singer first met the Purple One at a concert in the late ’70s, and years later she ended up contributing vocals during the Purple Rain recording sessions. After receiving a couple Grammy nominations for her own 1984 song “The Glamorous Life”, Sheila E. and her band opened for Prince’s Purple Rain Tour. It was during this ti...
Andra Day Refuses to Be Silenced in First Trailer for The United States vs. Billie Holiday: Watch
Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday trailer Billie Holiday’s fame in the ’30s and ’40s threatened the very fabric of racist white America. But it was her popular recording of “Strange Fruit”, a song protesting the lynching of Black people, that officially made Holiday an enemy of the country. In an effort to discredit and silence her, the Federal Department of Narcotics targeted Holiday relentlessly, knowing she’d had a history of drug abuse. That’s the haunting premise of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a new Hulu biopic from director Lee Daniels (Precious) written by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The legendary jazz singer is played by real-life Grammy nominee Andra Day, who embodies Holiday’s brazen outspokenness and magnetism in equal measure, as seen in to...
Kelvin Harrison Jr. Cast as B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Biopic
Kelvin Harrison Jr. and B.B. King (photos via Wikipedia) Kelvin Harrison Jr. is The King of Blues. The 26-year-old actor has been cast to play B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming Elvis Presley biopic. Known for his roles Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Luce, and Waves, Harrison Jr. will join the Warner Bros. production alongside Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Yola, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and others. As Deadline points out, the film resumed shooting in September after a six-month production shutdown that followed Hanks’ COVID-19 diagnosis way back in March. With Butler playing The King of Rock and Roll and Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Harrison Jr.’s supporting role as The King of Blues will be crucial to portraying the cultural landscape of the ’50s and bey...
Teyana Taylor Reportedly Down To Play Dionne The Singer AKA Dionne Warwick Onscreen
Source: 2020 Billboard Women In Music / Getty Dionne Warwick has become something of a renewed personality via social media as a result of her hilarious tweets and pop culture inquisitiveness. It appears that the legendary singer really knows her stuff because it’s being reported she connected with Teyana Taylor in hopes of getting the New York talent to play her in a docuseries. Last week, Ms. Warwick posted a video via Twitter asking her legion of fans if they’d watch a docuseries centered on her life [of course we would!] but in the caption of the tweet, she made it clear that Taylor’s her choice as the lead. TMZ is reporting that Warwick and Taylor hopped on the phone recently to kick around the idea and Taylor, by the account of the sources close to the story, say it could very well b...
True Crime Miniseries On Rick James In Development
Source: Ron Galella / Getty Rick James may have landed on the radars of some people due to the classic skit on Chappelle’s Show, but the real ones know his legacy is far greater than that. A new true crime limited series is now in development that will examine the life and legacy of the late singer and songwriter. Deadline reports that the series Super Freak, a working title thus far, is in development with Universal Content Productions, which is owned by Universal Studio Group. Ty James, the daughter of the Buffalo, N.Y. artist, has been named as the executive producer of the project. From Deadline: Written and executive produced by McKinnon, Super Freak (wt) is described as a funkadelic mix of music biopic and true crime. It chronicles Rick James’ plans for a comeback in the early 1990s ...
British Actress Naomi Ackie To Play Whitney Houston In New Biopic
Source: Franco Origlia / Getty The late, great Whitney Houston still remains as one of the most iconic voices in modern music, and the highs and lows of her career still stir the hearts of fans worldwide. In an upcoming biopic supported by the family and the singer’s former label chief in Clive Davis, British actress Naomi Ackie will play the superstar vocalist. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reports that Ackie, 28, will star as Houston in the film I Wanna Dance WIth Somebody. Although the film reportedly won’t see a release until the fall of 2022, the biopic’s director Stella Meghie appears thrilled at the chance to tell Houston’s story for generations to come. From THR: “We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston,...
Creed Singer Scott Stapp to Play Frank Sinatra in Ronald Reagan Biopic
Scott Stapp (via “My Sacrifice” video), Frank Sinatra (via Nothing But the Best album cover) We’ve been inundated with some unforeseeable headlines in 2020, and here’s one more before the year ends: Creed singer Scott Stapp is playing Frank Sinatra in an upcoming biopic on Ronald Reagan. Yes, the rock vocalist is portraying the legendary crooner in the movie Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president of the United States. Stapp already filmed the role, telling Billboard, “Sinatra in performance mode was an exercise in restraint. He had this steely, stylish swagger and his sheer presence commanded a room. I was excited to join the cast and blown away by the on-set attention to detail, style, and overall production.” His performance as Sinatra comes during a scene in whi...
Naomi Ackie to Play Whitney Houston in Upcoming Biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard and Naomi Ackie in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Sony’s upcoming Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has finally found its leading star. English actress Naomi Ackie is in “final negotiations” to play the late legendary singer, according to Variety. The 28-year-old Ackie recently earned a BAFTA for her acclaimed performance in the Netflix comedy-drama The End of the F***ing World. She’s also scored major screen time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the British anthology series Small Axe from Steve McQueen, whom we recently named our Filmmaker of the Year. Together with director Stella Meghie (The Photograph) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody), Ackie will tell the complex yet inspiring story of Whitney H...
Carrie Brownstein is Making a Heart Biopic
Washington state rockers unite. Carrie Brownstein of the Olympia legends Sleater-Kinney is writing and directing a biopic about the iconic Seattle band, Heart. During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Lyndsey Parker, Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson revealed that Brownstein — who’s also known for her starring role in the TV series Portlandia — will be telling her band’s story for Amazon alongside producer Lynda Obst (Interstellar, Sleepless In Seattle). “I can’t tell you all about it, because it’s still being written right now,” Wilson said in a clip that was posted to Parker’s Instagram. “I saw the first draft of [Brownstein’s] script, and it’s really cool.” According to Wilson, a few actresses have been considered to play her and her sister Nancy, who sing and perform a few instruments ...
