Zac Efron to Play Kurt Cobain in Heavier than Heaven, the Movie
Wait--choke back that vomit. We're making shit up. Speculating doom, if you will. Only half of that title is true.
Charles Cross' 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain actually is being adapted for the big screen. By highly-anticipated The Kite Runner and Wolverine screenwriter David Benioff, no less. (Aside: Seattlest once met Benioff at an Austin bar, while unsuccessfully schmoozing with Hollywood types. Before we knew better, we asked him, "Are you a writer, too?" Ha.) And hey, guess who's already attached as executive producer?
Courtney Love, of course.
No, this film won't be anything like the mesmeric, uncoercive Kurt Cobain About a Son (held over at the Varsity through Thursday). There's no budget or director attached at this point, but with Universal Pictures behind the project, we're assuming it'll be a Big Melodic Biopic, a la Ray and Walk the Line.
Hey--isn't it a bit early for this kind of crap?
Actually, no. It's been over 13 years since Kurt died, 15 since Nirvana's first salad days. Ray Charles departed just months before his titular film won raves in 2004. And the Johnny Cash-via-Joaquin Phoenix movie came only a couple of years after the Man in Black's death.
The real question relates to casting. Who'll play Kurt, Dave, Krist, et al? Who'll play Courtney? (Herself!) But there are other big ones, too: How about music rights? And how, exactly, does Courtney Love want to exploit the cultural enigma that is her late husband?
Other than her blessing, Love bestowed nothing upon the low-wattage About a Son and had no stake in its release. But this time, with a major studio and major above-the-line talent involved, she'll receive an official EP credit. (Credit = Paycheck.) Celeb rehab and mommyhood must be a lot more expensive than we laypeople realize.
(With that, we'll stop our Love-bashing. We don't want to be anything like this guy.)
A film based on Heavier than Heaven could actually be very good if placed in the right director's hands. (First top-of-our-head nomination: Paul Thomas Anderson.) It'll be a plus if Charles Cross has any input. (Other than his book's rights, we haven't yet read that he'll be involved.) But if done by an insensitive, grunge-era-ignorant filmmaker, the work could be total crap.
We can't guess where it'll fall this early in the creative game. But we certainly will vomit if some Efron-type--sickenly, he could physically mimic Kurt with little effort, and, oh shit, he sings, and, um, is the right age, fuck--assumes the gifted, tortured, fragile title role.
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