The 10-year anniversary of INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence's demise may end up being celebrated with a movie. Music video director Nick Egan is in the process of putting together a biopic on the nine-years gone rocker called Slide Away, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Interestingly enough, Egan has toyed with the idea of doing a Hutchence biopic for years, but wasn’t really motivated to do it until he saw the rather horrible reality show “Rockstar INXS”, in which his former band mates cashed in on Michael’s death by hosting a reality show to replace him. They’ve got a new, young lead singer and some fatter wallets, but Hutchence remains irreplaceable.
That the film’s being made is old news. What’s new is that apparently the idea that Michael’s former band mates were splaying themselves out on reality television irritated Egan enough to get him moving on his long planned biopic. Producer Clark Westerman told him, “Somebody else is going to do it, and they are not going to do it as well as you would because you knew him so well.” Egan was a friend of Hutchence, and directed his videos.
Rather than let his former band mates suck his bones dry for cash by selling his story to another reality television producer, Egan is telling the self-ending frontman’s story himself. In doing so, he won’t obsess over the man’s bizarre death. Westerman says, “What we are aiming for is the journey through a person's life via their head.” Sounds pretty boring. Where’s the drugs and babes? Where’s the suicide? That’s rock n’ roll. I want my rock stars burning bright and burning fast.
Luckily, last we heard Johnny Depp was considering taking on the part. He’ll find something special in it, even if Egan and Westerman seem bound and determined to make the whole thing pretty boring. Trust the Depp. Can we get a little IV drug use Johnny? Even Johnny Cash smoked crack.
