A biopic about the band Mötley Crüe is heading to Netflix after the story 18 years of being trapped in development purgatory.
A biopic about Mötley Crüe called The Dirt has been working its way from page to screen for 18 years. Finally, after the band’s story has traveled from studio to studio, the film has found a home on Netflix and is headed our way in March.
The Dirt chronicles the life of the notorious glam rockers that made up the band Mötley Crüe, Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars, and is based on the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Neil Strauss. The band’s story is one filled with turmoil, debauchery, and chaos, and as Deadline reports, is depicted in the film as a Boogie Nights-meets Goodfellas-style story.
For those unfamiliar with Mötley Crüe outside of hearing their songs on classic rock radio, the band lived quite raucously in their heyday. Nikki Sixx was once pronounced dead after a heroin overdose, Vince Neil got in a drunk driving accident in 1985 where he killed his passenger, and Tommy Lee’s sex tape with Pamela Anderson was leaked and shot the couple’s relationship straight into infamy.
So why has such a classic tale of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll taken so long to find its way to the screen? Apparently, it took a while for the band to find the perfect partner to bring their story to life. As Deadline reports, the movie was initially set to release in 2006 with Paramount/MTV, but the band’s manager Allen Kovac said the departure of MTV co-founder Tom Freston halted the film.
After freeing the film from Paramount and MTV, Kovac was able to shop the film to Netflix, who latched on to the flick. Whether or not you’re a fan of Mötley Crüe, the movie has a pretty impressive cast. Machine Gun Kelly plays Tommy Lee, Douglas Booth plays Nikki Sixx, Game of Thrones‘ Iwan Rheon is Mick Mars, and The Punisher’s Daniel Webber is Vince Neil.
It seems to be the era of the rock legend biopic with films like Bohemian Rhapsody and the trippy Rocketman releasing. It will be interesting to see how The Dirt compares to those stories, and if the viewership will find purchase beyond Mötley Crüe fans.
You can experience the story yourself when The Dirt releases on Netflix on March 22.