Skip to content
News

Kurt Cobain Biopic Moves Forward

100218-kurt-cobain.jpg

Nearly 16 years after Kurt Cobain’s untimely death, the on-again, off-again biopic about the Nirvana frontman’s life is taking a new step forward.

Oren Moverman, the filmmaker who co-wrote Todd Haynes’ film based on Bob Dylan’s life, I’m Not There, and earned two Oscar nods for his directing debut, The Messenger, is currently in talks to write a new draft of the screenplay for Universal Pictures’ untitled Kurt Cobain project, as well as direct it, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Screenwriter David Benioff (Brothers) had worked on the project since 2007.

The screenplay will be partially based on the 2001 book Heavier Than Heaven, written by music scribe Charles Cross, and will pull from research Benioff conducted with Cobain’s old friends in Aberdeen and Seattle. Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, will executive produce with her lawyer Howard Weitzman.

The upcoming biopic isn’t the first film about Cobain. Gus Van Sant released Last Days in 2005, a drama about a rock star’s death loosely based on the days leading up to Cobain’s suicide in April 1994.

While Cobain’s legacy lives on, Love and their daughter, Frances Bean, are working on their own musical projects.

Love, who graces the March cover of SPIN, reformed her band Hole and will release a new album, Nobody’s Daughter, in April. Wednesday night in London, Hole played their first concert in more than a decade. Read SPIN’s review here.

Meanwhile, Frances Bean is preparing to make her recording debut. The 17-year-old joins Tegan and Sara, Andrew W.K., “Weird Al” Yankovic, writer Neil Gaiman, and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way to sing “gang vocals” on the new album from Evelyn Evelyn, a project from Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer and musician Jason Webley.