Biopics You Would Like To See Made!

I recommend Cloudsplitter by Russel Banks, if you haven't read it.

 

Phil "Fang" Volk.

 

A quiet independent art film about Jim Morrison's last few months in Paris.

 

There is a show planned for early next year on Showtime called The Good Lord Bird, based on the book. John Brown (and Frederick Douglass, who was mentioned earlier) both figure into it. It is not a biopic though.

 

i'd love to see the Lou/Rachel love story done properly. the way he scrubbed Rachel from his life story has always bugged me.

 

Nat King Cole
Harry Nilsson

 

Yeah, the three greatest figures in rock/pop/soul music who have yet to have a film biopic would be:

Morris Levy (notorious mob-connected owner of Roulette Records and other firms)

Roy Orbison

Marvin Gaye

I also would love to do a music-oriented biopic of Phil Spector that showed him going through life and work prior to the 2003 murder at his house. He had a fascinating (albeit tragic) story, and the details of the "Wall of Sound" in the 1960s and 1970s were incredible. But the music rights would kill you: not only Beatles sessions, but also many hits with George Harrison and John Lennon. And let's face it: the scandal of his abusive relationship with Ronnie Spector and the death of the cocktail waitress color his entire life.

I would frame the Morris Levy story around that of Tommy James, and show his life in the 1940s and 1950s as a series of flashbacks, while James is recording his hits and trying to unsuccessfully avoid Levy stealing all the money. Supposedly, Tommy James wrote his biography and has tried to sell it to Hollywood for the last 10 years, but has been unsuccessful.

I think The Big O's story has been chased for several years by different people, but the problem there is that most filmmakers would want to cover Roy's philandering, and his family wants to present a much more chaste legacy. And Marvin Gaye's family wants a fortune for their rights.

Lugosi was great as Karloff's sidekick in The Invisible Ray.

 

I worked on that film for director/star Matthew Broderick, Infinity, back in 1996. We talked about what a fascinating guy Richard Feynman was, because he was a rare mathematician/physicist who also loved gambling, going to nightclubs, partying with women, and playing practical jokes. He definitely lived life to the fullest. The movie only showed his life in the 1930s and 1940s, his romance with his first wife (who tragically died of tuberculosis), through the detonation of the first A-bomb in June of 1945. The film did not do well, but I liked quite a bit of it. You would need a 4- or 5-hour mini-series to tell the entire Richard Feynman story.

 

L.A. Woman And The Last Days Of Jim Morrison | Louder

 

I see where you were going with this thread, but for band/artist biopic discussion, it's already actively being done here:

Wish there was a biopic about this band or artist

 

Lemmy

From being a roadie for Hendrix to Hawkwind and onto Motorhead....

 

I would love to see one on Neville Chesters.




From his Wikipedia article:

After relocating to London in 1964, he then became road manager for The Who between 1965 and 1966.

In 1967, he was assistant to Robert Stigwood which involved working for the bands Cream and The Bee Gees.

Later on, he also worked for Brian Epstein at NEMS Enterprises, which involved various projects with The Beatles and other NEMS artists (Sunday Night At The Saville Theatre).

From 1967 to 1968, he worked as the road manager for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, touring extensively and internationally with the band.

During this time, Neville shared a flat with Jimi Hendrix's bass player Noel Redding and with Lemmy Kilmister of Hawkwind and Motörhead fame. Additionally, Neville secured a position for Lemmy as a roadie with the Hendrix band.

From 1968-1969, he worked as assistant A&R to Peter Asher at Apple Records.

Taking a break from the entertainment field, Neville bought a farm in Cornwall, living and farming there peacefully for the next two years.

Chesters moved back to London in 1972 and re-entered the rock business, resuming road manager duties; this time working for Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

In Denver, he met a band (then called Aphrodite) and took them back to England, successfully procuring a record deal for them with E.L.P. Manticore Records as the band Stray Dog which featured band members W.G. Snuffy Walden, Alan Roberts and Les Sampson. He toured with them until 1974.

He went on to work for Electro-Sound, a full-service staging/sound equipment/ P.A./ lighting and touring production company

In 1975, he moved to Woburn, Bedfordshire and started a successful antiques renovation company known as Yesterdays Pine, specialising in antique and reproduction pine furniture and "collectabillia".
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...and after that, he had a huge apartment in New York City, right on Central Park and got into producing "adult films." You really need to listen to his Rialto Report interview - the man is a living, breathing piece of rock history and a film about him would feature all these greats of the 60s and 70s.

 

Eric Clapton's life story would make for an interesting movie, for sure.

 

an honest one of John Denver...

 

I'm sure one is coming the man is a Legend!

 

I'm all for that! be great...

 

I want a biopic about Liam Neeson.

 

Richard Farina

 

Johnny Paycheck
David Allan Coe

 

A level, unbiased biopic on John Lennon

 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A real honest to goodness history of them and the Wild Bunch, from the American West to Bolivia.

 

So few music biopics are even halfway good, it's hard to pine for any in particular -- knowing the success rate is maybe 25% (at best).

And for the record, I actually would count Don Cheadle's biopic of Miles Davis as being one of the more enjoyable ones (imho). Certainly more than that recent Jimi Hendrix one, despite a rather good acting job by André 3000.

So if I list a dozen subjects, it would pain me to know that 9 of them would probably be pretty disappointing -- or at least half -- at best!!!

 

Janis Joplin
Nick Drake

There were reports of a possible Mamas and the Papas biopic about ten years ago. Michelle Phillips talked about it a few times. I'm not sure why it fell by the wayside.

 

Yes!

 

There has been a few Beatles movies but there hasn't been a really good one yet, I also think Stanley Kubrick could make for an interesting bio pic. Something about The Pentagon Papers but from the perspective of The New York Times is something I'd like to see.