Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis‘ stories of drug addiction and unusual relationships are making their way to the silver screen. Universal Pictures has optioned the singer’s 2004 memoir, Scar Tissue, to develop it into a biopic, according to Deadline. The producers include Kiedis, Chilis manager Guy Oseary, and Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13).
The source material, one of the greatest rock memoirs of all time, could provide a story that’s far darker than most music biopics. Keidis’ book, cowritten with Larry Sloman, found him reflecting on his dad, who introduced him to drugs, the death of founding Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak of a heroin overdose, the many relationships he had over the years, and how he and bassist Flea kept the band going through all the turmoil.
In 2016, Kiedis told The Sun he initially regretted the book’s tell-all nature. “I did regret the book for a while as there was some pain caused,” he said. “But then, I started seeing the long term positive reverberating. People were reading it in hospitals, in prisons and schools and it was having a positive effect. I realized that the whole point of writing that book wasn’t for me, but to show that somebody can go all the way down and come all the way back and have a productive, successful happy interesting life.
“And so whatever shame, pain or difficulty or discomfort I went through,” he continued, “then it was worth it because I get so many people coming up to me saying their kids had read it and got their act together because of it.”
Music biopics have become big business for Hollywood in the past decade. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), which told Queen’s story, grossed more than $216 million domestically, while the N.W.A film Straight Outta Compton (2015) brought in more than $161 million, Elvis (2022) made more than $150 million (as of 2022, according to Billboard), and the Elton John flick Rocketman (2019) took in more than $96 million.
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