Randall Miller To Direct Dennis Wilson Biopic The Drummer
There haven't been too many movie updates to the site recently because I sort of got tired of writing about remakes of movies I liked when I was a kid, but we're inching towards the good part of the year, a new PTA film looms on the horizon, and there's some legitimately super hella awesome news floating around the interwebs today. Jody Savin and Randall Miller recently announced a new film called The Drummer about one of my favorite people ever. Here's the synopsis currently listed on IMDB.
The Drummer is the story of this inimitably talented but perennially disparaged man, the only true surfer of The Beach Boys and one of the truly original voices in Rock & Roll history. Intimate and personal, the story tracks the last six years of Beach Boys drummer's life, the younger brother to front man Brian, as he evolves into a creative force. Dennis Wilson digs his way out from under the shadow of his tyrannical father, corrals the demons and harnesses the will to tap his own artistry in order to create the critically applauded Pacific Ocean Blue. The film starts in the midst of The Beach Boys' fame and follows Dennis' journey, replete with decadence, drugs, love and tragedy. Despite Dennis' fall into drugs and alcohol, ultimately it is his music and his uniquely magnanimous spirit that endures.
This is just really great news. Brian will always be the "genius" of the Wilson boys, and Carl is one of my favorite vocalists of all time, but Dennis had quite a bit more musical ability than he is often credited with and it's nice to see someone hopefully bringing that to the masses. Pacific Ocean Blue is an often overlooked gem, and it recently received the reissue treatment along with the inclusion of Wilson's previously unreleased follow up Bambu.
Unfortunately like so many others, Dennis Wilson fell prey to his demons. At the age of 39 he drowned in Marina Del Rey harbor after a day of drinking back in 1983. As if that wasn't tragic enough Wilson is reported to have jumped in the water to retrieve some possessions he had thrown overboard from his boat a few years before. The good news is it seems like Miller, who directed 2008's Bottle Shock, has a good grasp of his subject.
"Dennis was a pained and tortured soul, yet brilliant and loved dearly by so many who knew him," says Miller. "This film has the makings of a tour-de-force performance in the hands of the right actor. As a director, I search for stories that expose the soul of a character in new territories that excite me as a filmmaker."
