‘Bad Grandpa’ Director to Helm Motley Crue Biopic ‘Dirt’

Director Jeff Tremaine pulled off an unlikely victory recently when his film Bad Grandpa dethroned the Oscar-destined drama Gravity for the top spot at the box office. Now firmly established as a lowbrow visionary, Tremaine has locked in his next film project: the sure-to-be-sleazy Mötley Crüe biopic Dirt.

As Deadline reports, Tremaine will direct the long-awaited project based on the 2001 band autobiography The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band, which was cowritten by members Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars along with writer Neil Strauss (who often writes for Rolling Stone). The film, produced by LBI Entertainment, will chronicle the hair-metal band’s rise to fame in Hollywood, personal turmoil and infamous backstage antics involving copious sex and hard drugs. The film’s script is currently being “polished” by Californication writer Tom Kapinos, and shooting is set to begin early next year.

“I’ve been careful to make this a natural progression,” Tremaine told Deadline of the film. “I’ve been offered a lot of scripts, but Dirt is something I pursued with everything I had. I’ve wanted to make this going back to 2001, when we were just planning the first Jackass movie and I found out that David Gale at MTV Films had just optioned the book. First of all, I had no idea how to make Jackass into a movie, but I said to him, ‘Let me direct that movie, too.’ He said, ‘Yeah, of course!’ He was being sarcastic, because he had the same level of confidence in me as a director as I did at that time.”

Luckily for Tremaine, that movie never got made and he was able to snap up the project in the next round. He said he is focused on maintaining the “spirit” of the band’s history, which he emphasized is much darker than his previous work.

“It’s important to get actors who play, or who understand how to deliver the charisma it takes to be onstage,” he said. “Rock stars have a swagger. Some of what they went through is funny, but overall this movie is not going to be a comedy. It’s pretty dark. I think fans of what I’ve done will like this movie, but it’s not going to make you fall out of your chair laughing.”

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com