The Bands Hollywood Won't Film

Morning, sceptics.

Today:

A film deal you didn't read about, and the question it leaves on the table.

Coffee at the ready…

I've had The Twilight Sad on the morning ride all week.

Scottish post-punk, songs about grief, the kind of band Paramount will never make a film about. Yesterday Paramount and Warner Music Group signed a multi-year, first-look deal on biopics drawn from WMG's roster. Bowie, Madonna, Dua Lipa, Cardi B — co-developed with the artist or estate.

A list of which musicians get remembered, and on whose terms.

The Twilight Sad won't make the list. Most of the music I love won't either.

Start with what we know works.

Lionsgate's Michael just crossed $300 million globally and is chasing Bohemian Rhapsody's $911 million all-time record. The film ends in 1988 — before the 1993 abuse allegations, before the 2005 trial. Estate lawyers found a clause in a settlement and reshot every reference out of the script. The bill came to $40-50 million, paid by the estate, which also produced the film.

Whoever writes the cheque decides what the script can say.

That's the model Paramount just signed up for.

An estate or label co-produces. The script gets a legal read. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody streams jumped 77% the week the film released — and that, not the film, is the actual product. The catalogue is the inventory. The artist's life is the IP.

Risk down, hagiography up.

Which is fine until you ask what it does to music itself.

The artists who get the films get the streams. The streams feed the playlists, and the playlists raise the next generation. Madonna spent years trying to make hers at Universal before it died. The biopics we get next won't be the most interesting artists.

They'll be the ones whose lawyers say yes.

I keep thinking about James Graham, the singer in The Twilight Sad.

He became a father two days before his closest friend in music, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, took his own life in 2018. The album the band was mixing the week he died became It Won/t Be Like This All the Time. Graham said he stopped hiding behind metaphors. The audience is real. The songs are honest. There is no version of his story Paramount wants to fund. Rolling Stone's critic called Michael "the Passion of St. Michael."

The cost of the saints isn't the saints.

It's everyone fading off the playlist behind them.

Pro: Music biopics drive people back to cinemas and into artists' catalogues, sustaining theatrical and giving older music new ears.

Con: When the estate co-produces, the film is a marketing asset — and the genre quietly redirects which musicians the next generation discovers.

Our read: The genre is healthy. The story it tells about music is narrowing. Watch the playlists, not the box office.

[Analysis] Variety — "Inside Michael Movie Reshoots and Removing Child Abuse Allegations"

The Jackson estate served as a producer; estate lawyers found a clause in a 1994 settlement and the film was rewritten and reshot to remove every reference to the abuse allegations.

Why it matters: The reshoot is the template. Every estate-backed biopic from here is shaped by what the lawyers will let through.

$40–50m: reshoot cost to remove the abuse allegations from Michael.

(Variety)

[Report] Washington Post — What the Michael Jackson movie leaves out — A clean inventory of the reshoot cuts. Useful for spotting the same edits in future biopics.

[Report] Hollywood Reporter — Paramount's deal with Warner Music — Paramount wants 30 films a year post-merger. Biopics fill the gap.

[Report] Variety — Paramount, Warner Music ink biopic pact — Madonna spent years trying to make a biopic at Universal before it was scrapped. WMG-Paramount is the new lever.

Whose biopic do you actually want to see?

You can read all our back issue newsletters for free here.

For the love of coffee, see you Monday!

Enjoy your Friday, keep it caffeinated.

Your Friday brew.

Go listen to a band nobody's making a film about.

Read yesterday’s newsletter about AWS’s AI agents here.

Thanks for reading!

Are you subscribing?

Join your crew of caffeinated sceptics today.

Be sure to get your daily Curse and Coffee fix by hitting the button below.

Open Monday to Friday.