Deadheads Rejoice: Jonah Hill Is Set To Play Jerry Garcia In New Martin Scorsese Movie
A stack of big names are involved in the production.
Following their work together on The Wolf Of Wall Street, Jonah Hill and Martin Scorsese are teaming up once more, this time for a new film about the life of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
Scorsese is a well-known Deadhead, having executive produced the mammoth documentary about the band, Long Strange Trip. That 2017 flick was an astonishing 238 minutes long, covering the rise and fall and rise again of one of the most important and outre bands in American pop music history.
As for Hill’s bonafides, the actor has been on a hot streak over the last few years, turning in one of the performances of his career in Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot. He’s also set to appear in Adam McKay’s gargantuan Don’t Look Up, an apocalyptic comedy about the end of the world.
So far, details on the Garcia biopic are pretty scant — all we know is that the film will be released by Apple, marking Scorsese’s second time working with a streaming service after the deeply melancholy, deeply vicious The Irishman.
But hey, they’ve absolutely nailed the casting: Jonah Hill has precisely the antic, sideways energy needed to play Garcia. The film also has preliminary approval by those close to the American musician, with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead executive producing, as well as Garcia’s daughter Trixie.
Oh, and if you needed any additional reasons to get excited, then here’s this: the film will be written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, masters of the biopic who penned one of the best American films ever made, Tim Burton’s demented and strangely heartwarming Ed Wood.
In essence, whether you’re a Deadhead or not, this one is definitely a film to watch. Start counting down the days till its release, and stream as much Grateful Dead as possible in the meantime.