CBGB is dead, long live CBGB
Seminal downtown New York punk/New Wave club is getting movie-ized, with Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop, Malin Akerman as Debbie Harry, and more.
CBGB is dead, long live CBGB
Steven Rea, Inquirer Movie Columnist and Critic
CBGB is getting its own biopic. The famously squalid, seminal punk and New Wave venue – the Bowery boite where The Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie and a gang of now legendary acts launched their careers way back in the late '70s and early '80s– is the subject of a soon-coming feature, CBGB. (The name stood for Country, BlueGrass and Blues – the New York club finally shuttered in 2006.)
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, in his movie debut, will play shirtless wildman Iggy Pop. Rupert Grint, better known to most of the world as Ron Weasley from the wee little Harry Potter pics, is down to play Cheetah Chrome, guitarist with The Dead Boys. Others onboard include Malin Akerman, segueing from her big hair Rolling Stone reporter role in the ‘80s musical Rock of Ages, to playing Debbie Harry, frontwoman of Blondie. Brit thesp Alan Rickman (also a Harry Potter alum) has signed on to portray CBGB’s colorful owner Hilly Kristal, Mickey Sumner (The Borgias) has been cast as Patti Smith, and Joel David Moore (nerdy Norm Spellman in Avatar) as Joey Ramone. Shooting starts this month, with Randall Miller (the California vintner flick, Bottle Shock) directing.
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Can someone please tell me why the Ramones are considered "legendary"?? Can the average person growing up in that era name 3 of their songs??- @Jus - I grew-up in Philaburbia, USA then and consider The Ramones legendary! A lot of us trashed our mall-dispensed copies of Frampton Comes Alive and listened to the groundbreaking music featured at CBGB's and the like. We were listening to 80's music in the 70's. Shame you missed it!— Aroonie
- You are right, the average person would not be able to. That's the unfortunate part, they deserved more recognition. They inspired the entire punk rock movement that came out of England and countless musicians that followed that. Glad I was not average.— gregb
