Bon Jovi Biopic Announced

We're currently in a phase where every act in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame seems to be getting a biopic, so why not Bon Jovi, too? Deadline reports that Universal has signed on to produce a film about the story of the big-haired New Jersey rock stars, with the full participation of frontman Jon Bon Jovi and access to the band's entire music library. Finally, the world will get to see the story of the boy from New Jersey who became a rock star! No, not that one! The other one!

We don't know much about the Bon Jovi biopic yet — no title, no director, no stars. We do, however, know that Universal has assigned all-important screenwriting duties to one Cody Brotter, an actor who has very few screenwriting credits but who apparently found some level of fame with his Black List script for his unproduced Matt Drudge biopic Drudge. The producers will include Kevin J. Walsh, whose credits include Manchester By The Sea and House Of Gucci, and Gotham Chopra, son of Deepak and director of the band-sponsored Hulu documentary series Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.

As someone who has written a bunch of Number Ones columns about Bon Jovi, I can tell you that the band's rise is full of potentially fun cinematic moments; we can only hope for the scene where a teenage Jon Bon Jovi makes his on-record debut with a timeless number called "R2-D2, We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Also, there's plenty of visual potential in the band's floofy-hair days. Unfortunately, authorized biopics are usually short on trashiness, and a non-trashy Bon Jovi biopic sounds like a bit of a chore.

Discussion question: Who should play Jon Bon Jovi? The role will probably go to some young actor from some Netflix show, but I would like to suggest Jon Bon Jovi himself, with a wig but without any digital de-aging. I would have fun watching that. If this picture is a success, maybe we'll get a spinoff about Tommy who used to work on the dock and Gina who works the diner all day. But now that I think about, the Bon Jovi movie that I really want to see is the one about this guy.