Nick Cassavetes to Direct Indie 'I Slept With Joey Ramone' (Exclusive)

Based on the 2009 memoir by Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh, the story revolves around the birth of the punk movement.

Rock may not be dominating radio, but it's seeing a resurgence onscreen.

Nick Cassavetes is the latest to join the band, signing on to adapt and direct the indie I Slept With Joey Ramone. Based on the 2009 memoir by Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh, the story revolves around the birth of the punk movement. With debut album Ramones in 1976, Ramone became the poster boy of disaffected youth in the 1970s and '80s, influencing the counterculture for decades to come. Gene Kirkwood (Rocky) is producing and putting together the financing.

No stranger to music-themed projects, Kirkwood exec produced HBO's The Defiant Ones, which chronicles Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's partnership, and the 50 Cent star vehicle Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

"Nick is digging deep with Mickey Leigh," says Kirkwood. "The plan is he and Mickey will discover the talent and put a real band together."

Although decades have passed since the apex of punk rock and its siblings, Fox will release Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody on Nov. 2. Elisabeth Moss recently wrapped Alex Ross Perry's Her Smell for Bow and Arrow Entertainment, playing a punk rocker with substance abuse issues, and Asa Butterfield starred as a guitar-wielding punk rocker in The House of Tomorrow, which had an April 27 limited release.

Two metal pics are on the way as well: Netflix's Motley Crue biopic, The Dirt, and Darius Marder's long in-development Sound of Metal for which Riz Ahmed is now attached.

Meanwhile, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is teaming with NBCUniversal's Wilshire Studios to develop a docuseries that will pair a director with his or her favorite musician for each episode. Dubbed Immortals, the series, which is being shopped to cable and streaming outlets, is the hall of fame's first TV project outside its annual induction ceremony broadcast — just in time for a new period of resistance.

This story first appeared in the June 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.