The performers and their stories come loaded with a built-in awareness factor, anticipation among fans provides ready-made promotional fodder and such pics have proven to be Oscar bait for both stars and filmmakers.
But for every “Runaways" or “La Vie en Rose" that makes it to the bigscreen -- some reaping box office success, others not -- there are at least a dozen projects that languish in development limbo or die due to licensing or other hurdles.
Like any film, music bio-pics face the typical Hollywood headaches - - agreeing on a script, nailing down a workable budget, finding a marketing hook -- but they're also laden with particular biopic baggage, such as securing the cooperation of the subject or their estate, clearing performance rights issues and enlisting an actor to fill some awfully big shoes.
The roster of music biopics announced over the past decade reads like a who's who of legendary performers: competing Janis Joplin and Dusty Springfield features; a Miles Davis opus nurtured by Don Cheadle; Mike Myers as Keith Moon; Martin Scorsese's take on Frank Sinatra; and long-languishing attempts to bring the stories of Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Kurt Cobain to cinematic life, to name a few.
Any film about a real-life public figure takes on added risk. As one lawyer notes, the line between what is public and private is not always clear.
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