Well, this should be interesting – David Benioff has been hired by Universal Pictures and our very own Working Title to write a biopic of the late Nirvana frontman, Mr. Kurt Cobain.
We’ll Cliff Notes Cobain for you, just in case you somehow don't know who we're talking about: the lead singer, guitarist and creative force behind Nirvana, the angst-fuelled grunge act that exploded in the early Nineties, Cobain’s tortured lyrics hit a nerve with millions of disenfranchised teenagers, placing him in the invidious and unwanted position of being hailed as the voice of a generation.
Saddled with a self-destructive streak and a crippling addiction to heroin, Cobain attempted suicide on several occasions before finally succeeding on April 5, 1994, when he blew his head off with a shotgun.
Since then, we’ve had a couple of movies that have dealt with Cobain and his legacy, including Nick Broomfield’s intriguing documentary, Kurt And Courtney, which insinuated that Cobain may not have committed suicide; and Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, which starred Michael Pitt as a Cobain-esque rock star in the countdown to his death.
But the Benioff-scripted flick would be the first Cobain biopic proper – and you have to wonder why, with such a rich story, it’s taken Hollywood so long (Elvis hadn’t been cold two years before John Carpenter directed Elvis: The Movie).
The movie will be based on Charles Cross’ exhaustively-researched biography of Cobain, entitled Heavier Than Heaven, and will be co-produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Reveille Motion Pictures.
Working Title’s involvement, and the hiring of Benioff, who’s a fine screenwriter, gives Empire some confidence that this will be a sensitively-handled depiction of Cobain’s life. But we have reason to sound one pretty big note of caution: Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, will executive produce, which may see some of the more insalubrious elements of Cobain’s life, and indeed, Love’s notorious involvement in his life, whitewashed. More hagiography than biography? Could be.
Certainly, Nirvana’s bassist, Krist Novoselic and their drummer and now Foo Fighters frontman, Dave Grohl, will be watching developments closely to see how they’re portrayed: Love and the duo famously don’t get on, to say the least...