Lately, Hollywood has pushed the already close link between film and music even further with a string of biopics on famous musicians from Ray Charles (2004's "Ray") to Bob Dylan (2007's "I'm Not There").
Apparently, Kurt Cobain is next on the list.
Universal Studios has been sitting on the Cobain biopic for a few years with little to show for it but a shelved screenplay by David Benioff, screenwriter of "Troy" (2004) and "Brothers" (2009). According to the Hollywood Reporter, Universal has now tapped Oren Moverman, who gained acclaim for his directorial debut "The Messenger" (2009), to rework Benioff's screenplay and direct the film.
While I enjoy the occasional Nirvana documentary and was moved by "Last Days" (2005) Gus van Sant's fictional account of the end of Cobain's life I can't help but hope that my mental abilities are strong enough to stop the production of the Universal film through sheer force of will. Perhaps this is just cynicism on my part, but I don't see any way this film can turn out right. I worry that the movie is merely exploiting Cobain's tumultuous life for the sake of accumulating large audiences and racking up Oscars.
Even if the intent is to honor Cobain's influence on music, a feature film is the wrong way to go about it Cobain was known for his dislike of the glitz and glam of the celebrity world. In letters and journal entries, he wrote that he regretted having fallen into the role of the glorified rock star and felt that he had deeply betrayed fans by doing so. Creating a film about his life with major actors playing him and his contemporaries would be the last way to properly honor his memory.
Another major issue: who would those actors be? Rolling Stone recently published an online article proposing actors for each potential role in the film. I sincerely hope the article was intended as satire because the suggestions that Ryan Gosling play Cobain, Scarlett Johansson play Courtney Love, and Jake Gyllenhaal play Guns N' Roses' frontman Axl Rose, with whom Cobain had a highly publicized dispute, are absurd and perhaps better suited for a "90210"-style remake of Cobain's lifestory.
It's not that Gosling, Johansson and Gyllenhaal aren't good actors. It just seems too ironic to have Hollywood's sweethearts star in this movie. Now that Universal has purchased the rights to Nirvana's music, this may also be the first film about the band that features actors performing their music yet another aspect I am not looking forward to.
In certain cases, biopics can illuminate the little-known lives of artists who have greatly impacted music and deepen our appreciation and understanding of those artists. A biopic on Cobain, however, will likely fail to do that. In order to create a successful biopic, one first has to have some understanding of the subject. The fact that Cobain's life has been bought by Hollywood to be thrown onto the silver screen with A-list celebrities playing his music proves this is not the case.
