Director Larry Charles Says NC-17 Motley Crüe Film, The Dirt, Isn't Happening. Also, New HBO Series With Kanye West.
The Motley Crüe biopic, The Dirt, is one of those long-fabled projects, complete with dream casting (Chris Walken as Ozzie!) befitting Inglorious Bastards circa 1999, that may never see the darkness of a theater. Borat and Religulous director, Larry Charles, has been attached to helm for some time and tells Coming Soon that his NC-17 vision is probably too nihilistic for Hollywood. The first sentence is a keeper...
"...Motley Crüe is a crappy band but [Neil Strauss] wrote a really epic book about them. It's really fascinating. What's good about it is how hardcore it is. They've killed people, they've hurt people, they've crippled people, they've done all kinds of crazy things. You'd have to show that for real and I think there was a little bit of reticence about doing that ultimately. But for me, I would do it if it could be done the proper way. If it's going to be sanitized then they don't need me to do it. They could find somebody else to do that."
Bummer. We'd much rather see Strauss' The Dirt developed into a feature than his bestseller The Game, the pick-up-chicks guide favored by every lonely grad student ever. In the meantime, Charles is currently developing a new HBO series in the vein of his Curb Your Enthusiasm for Kanye West. He says this too is facing hurdles...
"So it's like a Kanye and 'Curb' show, it's kind of improvised about the situations and stuff. It was really good, but again I think it was too hardcore for HBO. [HBO prexy] Sue Naegle has taken over and I want to show it to her and see how she responds to it."
Larry Charles: not taking off his sunglasses.
Discuss: For those who have read it, do you agree that The Dirt would make a cool NC-17 flick? What about an uncensored Kanye West-as-Larry David half hour series?