I’m a big fan of early rock and roll, so I have no idea how news of this movie escaped my notice until now…
According to Variety, Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) has signed to play Dennis Wilson, the drummer of the Beach Boys, in the indie film The Drummer, to be directed by Randy Miller (Bottle Shock).
This isn’t necessarily a Beach Boys movie, although it’s likely we’ll see at least Brian and Carl Wilson, Dennis’ brothers, pop into the film at some point. Dennis — who was actually the only Beach Boy who actually surfed — was more-or-less overshadowed in the group by Brian and usual lead singer, the Wilsons’ cousin Mike Love. But Dennis proved his only ability as a songwriter but as a lead singer as Brian distanced himself from the group in the 1970s, including what is probably one of the greatest songs from that period of the Beach Boys, “Forever” (made even more famous as one of John Stamos‘ hits on Full House, believe it or not). Dennis released the equally praised solo album Pacific Ocean Blue in 1977 before dying in 1983, drowning after a long period of drinking.
The film is expected to cover the last six years of Wilson’s life and the filmmakers have gotten the full rights to using Wilson’s music.
Even if you’re not a Beach Boys fan this is an intriguing project — we usually only see music biopic about the big names, but here we have a portrait of a man who spent most of his career in the background (and literally so — he was a drummer, after all).
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