Martin Scorsese Directing Grateful Dead Biopic Starring Jonah Hill As Jerry Garcia
A day after Martin Scorsese’s 79th birthday comes news today via Deadline that the Hollywood legend will be directing a Grateful Dead biopic with his longtime friend and collaborator Jonah Hill starring as Jerry Garcia. Like Scorsese’s upcoming Killers Of The Flower Moon adaptation — the one with Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson in the cast — the as yet untitled Dead movie will be produced for Apple TV+.
Apple reportedly has permission to use the band’s music in the film — unsurprising given that Garcia’s living bandmates Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann are on board as executive producers alongside Eric Eisner, Bernie Cahill, and Garcia’s daughter Trixie. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who wrote the hit limited TV series American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, are penning the script. Scorsese and Hill are also credited as producers, as is Rick Yorn.
Scorsese has directed numerous music documentaries including the Grateful Dead chronicle Long Strange Trip, but this upcoming project will be his first musician biopic. He previously worked with Hill on The Wolf Of Wall Street, and the two appeared together in a Super Bowl ad for Coca-Cola last year.