Kurt Cobain biopic setup at Universal

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Not content with remaking Hitchcock, Universal have set their sights on making money from the life of Kurt Cobain. Variety say they have set David Benioff (Wolverine, Troy) the job of penning a biopic on the deceased Nirvana frontman. Someone at Universal read the Charles Cross written biopic Heavier than Heaven and saw dollar signs... not printed text. They soon acquired the rights to the novel, a writer and the next step will be to find a director. The music rights to Nirvana and Cobain's music have not been locked down (at least not that Variety know of) so that could prove to be a stumbling block if they are to push this as a big project.

Working Title, Reveille Motion Pictures are also on board, as is Cobain's widow Courtney Love who will be executive producing. She has been desperate for a movie studio to pick up Cobain's life story since the beginning of the year. Unlike many biopics put into production, all of us pretty much know the whole background of Kurt Cobain. 20 years ago, Cobain formed Nirvana, an innovative and highly influential grunge/alternative rock band whose hit 1991 song Smells Like Teen Spirit defined a whole generation of America's youth and the "Generation X". Cobain's unique vocals, lyrics and Nirvan's fresh guitar work and sound were instantly reconisable to anyone even mildy interested in music in the early 90's. Nirvana's huge popularity and mainstream attention was mirrored by Cobain's drug filled depression which led the artist to commit suicide with a fatal gun shot to the head in 1994, leaving behind his wife Courtney Love and their daughter.

Cobain's suicide at such a young age would forever place him in a 'timeless' popular culture state where the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean reside from movies' past. Thousands of fans would forever struggle to get over the end of Nirvana and most recently we have seen the Gus Van Sant film Last Days (a movie about a 'fictional' artist, which was really just about the final hours of Cobain's death) which has no doubt got studio's interested in a full feature. Right time for a Cobain biopic? Who on Earth would dare take the role on with the legion of fans Nirvana still has ready to pounce if they think you are not the right guy?