You Can't Make This Script Up

If music be the food of biopics - green light!

• Caitlin Gallo & Brittany Harris • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Surprise! Nelly’s gonna play Chuck Berry... only in Hollywood! 

Things we talked about include: 

  • Breaking on camera and Caitlin’s bad audition
  • Ellen Chenoweth, casting director (True Grit, A Bronx Tale, Meet the Parents, Doubt - the list goes on!) 
  • The Buddy Holly biopic “Clear Lake” with Colin Hanks, Ruairi O'Connor and Nelly
  • That Thing You Do! (1996)
  • Our endless ongoing discussion of Almost Famous (2000). 
  • What a biopic? 
  • Franklin Leonard and The Black List
  • Elizabeth Shapiro, actress, writer, singer - multi hyphenate AF! 
  • Impact Creative Systems, Imagine Entertainment’s incubator program 
  • Walk the Line (2005) and Rocketman (2019)
  • Actors who sing in music biopics versus ones who don’t. 
  • Beyond the Sea (2004) 
  • Ray (2004) and Jamie Foxx’s singing bits in his stand-up
  • Selena (1997 movie) and Selena (2020 Netflix series) 
  • John Llyod Young and the Jersey Boys (2014 musical film adaptation)
  • Straight Outta Compton (2015)
  • Guest appearance by Brittany’s cat, Boots - meow! 
  • Love & Mercy (2014) and the Wrecking Crew, session musicians (Here’s a cool doc on them!)
  • Are biopics better or worse with the artist and their families being involved?
  • Elyse Hollander, screenwriter and her Madonna biopic screenplay “Blonde Ambition” 
  • Madonna to direct and co-write her own biopic at Universal. Diablo Cody to co-write project (Juno, Tully, Young Adult)
  • When are you being a control freak and when are you taking control of your narrative? 
  • Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
  • “13 Reasons Why” actress Ann Winters dresses up as Madonna to get the role in her biopic and... knocks it out of the park. (Instagram)
  • Our music biopic “People Like Us” - the rise and fall of the Mamas and the Papas. 
  • Telling the story of the band from the POV of Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliot. 
  • Michelle Phillips autobiography (California Dreamin': The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas) and the Vanity Fair article 
  • A Dolly Parton biopic - Megan Hilty, Reese Witherspoon or Scarlett Johansson? 
  • Marilyn Monroe biopics - My Week With Marilyn (2011), SMASH (2012) and Blonde (2021)
  • Jenna Evans Welch, author and her book series “Love & Gelato”, “Love & Luck” and “Love & Olives”
  • Regina King’s directorial debut “One Night in Miami” (trailer here!)