We are living in the golden age of the rock biopic. Until very recently, films like The Doors, Ray, Walk the Line, and Love and Mercy popped up only once every few years. But in roughly the past half-decade alone, we’ve seen Bohemian Rhapsody, Bob Marley: One Love, Back to Black, Rocketman, Respect, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and Elvis. This past Christmas, we got the story of Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, and Better Man, in which an anthropomorphic chimpanzee “plays” Robbie Williams. And in the coming months and years, we’re getting Deliver Me From Nowhere (Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen), Michael (Michael Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, as the King of Pop), and no fewer than four Beatles movies.
These stories are attractive for movie studios, since they can be created with relatively small budgets and come with built-in fan bases. But they’re also attractive for artists (or their estates) — a golden opportunity to gain a younger audience and remind the existing one why they got onboard in the first place.
A Complete Unknown is a perfect example. It’s attracting young Timothée Chalamet fans who were only vaguely aware that Dylan existed before the movie hit theaters, along with older Dylan fans who were anxious to revisit the Sixties and see how they’d transform his complex life story into a traditional Hollywood biopic. The fact that it went a little soft on several historical facts, including dramatically inflating the importance of Pete Seeger in Dylan’s saga and introducing a 100 percent fake alcoholic bluesman Jesse Moffette (played by real-life blues singer Big Bill Morganfield, the son of Muddy Waters) mattered little. The movie was a giant hit, and will likely earn Chalamet an Oscar nomination.
It got us thinking about future biopics that have yet to be made, and what they might look like if given the A Complete Unknown treatment. Here are five — entirely fictional — movie ideas that will hopefully leave the confines of our imagination and one day become real.
Like a Hurricane: The Neil Young Story
Premise: Neil Young (Timothée Chalamet) leaves the Canadian folk scene behind in 1966 to drive a vintage hearse to Los Angeles, where he meets up with Stephen Stills (Josh Hutcherson) and forms Buffalo Springfield. The movie tells the story of their relationship across the next 10 years as Young abandons promising groups he forms with Stills again and again and again, creating tidal waves of chaos and frustration along with some of the best records ever created.
Historical Inaccuracy: Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) and Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield) show up during the making of Tonight’s the Night in 1973. Seeger is horrified by the loud, abrasive music and encourages Young to get back to gentle, acoustic tunes like “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man,” and protest anthems like “Ohio.” Moffette, meanwhile, gets blackout drunk alongside the Santa Monica Flyers, and introduces them to “honey slides,” a potent mixture of honey and marijuana. The band then records a fierce rendition of “Like a Hurricane” two years before Young actually wrote it. Seeger looks around the studio for an ax to destroy the mixing console.
Climax: In the summer of 1976, Young and Stills form the Stills-Young Band and hit the road together. Near the end of an arena concert in Columbia, South Carolina, Young and Stills get into a backstage fight over whether to encore with “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” or one of their new songs. Young tells Stills he’s quitting the tour and breaking up the band, even though the crowd is screaming for an encore. “What am I supposed to do now?” Stills asks. Young just shrugs his shoulders, steps onto his bus, and yells, “Eat a peach!” out the window as he pulls out of the parking lot. The end credits roll. (Yes, we know this isn’t actually how it happened.)
Let It Bleed: The Story of the Rolling Stones
Premise: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Timothée Chalamet in a dual role, using the same technique David Fincher employed in The Social Network to allow Armie Hammer to play both Winklevoss twins) randomly meet up at Dartford railway station in 1961, discover a shared love of the blues, and form the Rolling Stones along with guitarist Brian Jones (Tom Holland). The movie spans the time period of 1961 to 1969 as Jagger and Richards slowly wrest control of the band away from Jones, who descends into a sorrowful state of drug addiction and is kicked out of the group shortly before he drowns in a swimming pool.
Historical Inaccuracy: The band arrives at Chess Records in 1964 and meet blues legend Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield). He encourages them to stop relying so heavily on cover songs, and start penning their own material. “I can’t get no satisfaction from playing songs I didn’t write myself,” Moffette tells them. Jagger and Richards write “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” that night over the objection of Jones, who wants to stick with traditional blues songs. He goes for a walk on the streets of Chicago and bumps into Pete Seeger (Ed Norton), who tells him to stick with the old classics.
Climax: Brian Jones is fired from the band right before they play a giant concert in London’s Hyde Park. He wanders across the city in a dejected state, stumbles upon the show, watches the crowd sing along to “Tumbling Dice,” “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” and other songs they hadn’t actually written yet, is devastated by the realization they’re doing fine without him, and goes home for a dip in the pool.
Rumours: The Saga of Fleetwood Mac
Premise: Stevie Nicks (Sydney Sweeney) and Lindsey Buckingham (Timothée Chalamet) join a fading British blues rock band. They turn the group’s fortunes around, but the success takes an enormous toll on their private lives. Nicks has an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood (Pete Davidson), and the marriage of keyboardist Christine McVie (Florence Pugh) and bassist John McVie (Joe Keery) dissolves.
Historical Inaccuracy: The group enters the Record Plant in early 1976 without any songs for their new album. They are barely on speaking terms, and all battling drug addictions. They bump into blues great Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield), and unload all of their problems onto him. “Sounds like the rumors about the five of you are true,” he says. “Don’t hide from the pain. Write about it. Stevie, lay off that gold dust, woman. Lindsey, oh great daddy of the band, if things aren’t working out with Stevie, go your own way. Christine, you’re the little songbird of the act. Don’t ever stop thinking about tomorrow. All of you, remember that thunder only happens when it’s raining. The five of you are a chain. If you don’t love each other now, you’re never going to love again.” They take frantic notes.
Climax: Twenty years after Rumours, the band come back together for a television concert special that’s set up to launch a reunion tour. They’re arguing over what to play when Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) walks into their dressing room. “I’m sure my vote doesn’t count,” he says. “But I’ve always been fond of that old B-side ‘Silver Springs.’ It reminds me of the silver springs near my house in Beacon, New York. I built it myself, you know. But Stevie, turn to Lindsey when you sing it. Deliver the lines ‘the sound of my voice will haunt you’ directly into his soul. The audience will eat it up. People not even born yet will put an image of the moment on T-shirts.”
What’s My Age Again?: The Blink-182 Story
Premise: Tom DeLonge (Timothée Chalamet) and Mark Hoppus (Nicholas Braun) meet up as teenagers in San Diego. They form Blink-182 after discovering a shared love of skateboarding, dick jokes, and punk rock. They level up when drummer Travis Barker (Machine Gun Kelly) joins the band in 1998, and their LP Enema of the State becomes a favorite of the TRL crowd. But things get complicated in the 2000s when Hoppus and DeLonge grow apart musically, and have wildly different visions for the future of the band.
Historical Inaccuracy: Tom DeLonge wanders around Chicago after playing the Warped Tour in 1997, and comes across blues legend Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield) looking into a telescope. He invites DeLonge to peer into it. “It’s my personal belief that aliens do exist,” he tells DeLonge. “The government is covering it up. And with this telescope, you can almost see into the future. But the future doesn’t sound anything like the music you’re making now. It sounds like angels, airwaves, and an incredibly watered down version of U2. Also, have you met my buddy, Pete Seeger? He just heard some of your songs and has some thoughts to share. I have to warn you, he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit…”
Climax: The group reforms in 2023 after a series of personal tragedies. (In this version of history, the first reunion of 2009 to 2014 didn’t happen, and the entire Matt Skiba era has also been erased.) DeLonge is now a UFO scholar. Barker is married to Kourtney Kardashian, and has become a respected songwriter-producer. Hoppus has survived a terrifying health ordeal, and is ready to devote himself full-time to music. They play “What’s My Age Again?”, and crack jokes about having sex with each other’s moms as a disgusted Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) watches from the audience, looking for an ax to smash them all to bits.
Chumbawamba: You’re Never Going to Keep Us Down
Premise: This one takes place in real time as Chumbawamba write and record “Tubthumping” across an incredibly chaotic 117 minutes in the summer of 1997. Lead singer Dunstan Bruce (Timothée Chalamet) shows up at the studio in a lousy mood since his anarchist punk group has seen little success despite more than a decade of relentless work, but with the encouragement of his bandmates, a mysterious stranger, and a lot of booze, they come up with a song that will live forever.
Historical Inaccuracy: In the middle of the session, Judd Abbot wanders over to a nearby studio and comes across Pete Seeger (Ed Norton). They start talking about English music from the early 1700s, and he plays her “Trumpet Voluntary” by composer Jeremiah Clarke. She incorporates elements of the trumpet solo into “Tubthumping.” While she’s gone, blues great Jesse Moffette (Big Bill Morganfield) pays a visit to the band, and asks if they have whiskey, vodka, lager, or cider. “Play me a song that reminds me of the good times,” he says. “Sing a song that reminds me of the better times.” They drink themselves into oblivion together as they write down lyrics in a frenzy.
Climax: With the clock ticking before they have to hand over the studio to another act, the band bangs out “Tubthumping” in four minutes and 38 seconds of pure magic. Seeger and Moffette watch from the mixing board, and lead them in a toast when it’s over. “To the first of many, many Chumbawamba hits,” they say. “Now, everyone head over to the pub. We’re going to piss the night away!”
Leave a Comment