With the Weinstein brothers optioning his widow’s autobiography, late reggae legend Bob Marley is poised to become the latest in a long string of musician biopic subjects, who recently have included Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. Beyonce Knowles is set to portray Etta James, and projects based on the lives of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin have been in the works for years. Given the genre’s current high-flying reputation among Oscar voters, here’s some food for preproduction thought.
Joe Strummer — “The Future Is Unwritten,” Julien Temple’s documentary of the Clash founder’s life, provided the lineaments of a gripping psychological portrait: The son of a British diplomat who rejects the privileges of his upbringing reinvents himself as a working-class hero and rewrites rock history.
Hank Williams — Country music’s original outlaw lived the kind of life that Hollywood loves: hard, and tragically short. A biopic was last attempted in 1964 (“Your Cheatin’ Heart”) and is desperately in need of an update.
Eartha Kitt — Her personal history is as compelling as Miss James’: Given away by her mother because of her mixed race, she flitted from a South Carolina plantation to Harlem to Paris, ultimately becoming a triple-threat star of theater, movies and music. By the 1960s, her outspokenly progressive politics attracted the attention of both the FBI and the CIA, prompting a European exile in the ’70s.
John Coltrane — One of the 20th century’s most revered jazz masters — listening to him has been likened to a kind of meditation — comes with a ready-made title (“A Love Supreme”) and a director (Clint Eastwood) with an ideal resume.
Nico — A European supermodel-turned-underground-rock-starlet: drugs, sudden death — what’s not to like? Somebody option Richard Witts’ “Nico: The Life & Lies of an Icon,” quick.
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