Martin Scorsese to Direct Jonah Hill in Grateful Dead Rock Biopic
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The veteran director is reuniting with Hill years after their successful collaboration on the dark comedy The Wolf of Wall Street.
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Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese and actor Jonah Hill
Legendary film director Martin Scorsese will direct a feature film about the Grateful Dead starring Jonah Hill.
Apple, the current distribute of Scorsese’s Killer of the Flower Moon (2022) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will also be in charge of distributing the upcoming flick.
Jonah Hill, a two-time Oscar nominee, has first worked with Scorsese on The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
The film’s screenplay will be penned by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers of acclaimed biopic hits like Dolemite Is My Name (2019) and Big Eyes (2014).
The Grateful Dead is an infamous jam band that was founded in the Bay Area during the ‘60s amidst San Francisco’s growing counter-culture movement. Jerry Garcia, who will be played by Hill in the film, was the Dead’s lead guitarist and vocalist. Following the induction of his band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Garcia died from a heart attack.
So far, it remains unclear which part of the band’s history will be explored in the film, but it seems that the film will be respectful to the band’s legacy given that Apple has already acquired the right to use their songs within the film, in addition to Scorsese having already executive produced the 2017 rock documentary about them titled Long Strange Trip.
Hill will be seen in the Adam McKay Netflix film Don’t Look Up this December, starring DiCaprio in their second film following Wolf, and Jennifer Lawrence.
