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Jonah Hill to star in Martin Scorsese’s Grateful Dead biopic
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 19 November 2021
Martin Scorsese is reportedly on board to direct a new Grateful Dead biopic for Apple TV+, starring Jonah Hill as band leader Jerry Garcia.
According to Deadline, Scorsese will also produce the movie, alongside Hill and writers of the screenplay Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski – best known for writing ‘The People v OJ Simpson’. Garcia’s daughter Trixie and Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are among the executive producers on the project.
Following the break up of their previous band, Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, Garcia, Weir and Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan co-founded The Grateful Dead with bassist Lesh and drummer Kreutzman in 1965. Briefly known as The Warlocks, they performed their first show as The Grateful Dead at one of Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests later that year.
Heavily involved in the counterculture movement of that time, the band became known for live shows that featured lengthy instrumental jams that they actively encouraged fans to bootleg.
Garcia died in 1995 of a heart attack, while staying in a rehab clinic.
