Jonah Hill To Portray Jerry Garcia in Martin Scorsese’s Grateful Dead Biopic
Hill will portray Garcia in Scorsese’s upcoming Apple TV+ biopic that has the full backing of the band.
Jonah Hill is teaming up with his The Wolf of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese to play iconic Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia in an upcoming biopic about the band.
Scorsese will helm the untitled Grateful Dead biopic for Apple TV+ with Hill, 37, starring as Garcia, who died at 53 in 1995 of a heart attack at a residential drug treatment facility.
Grateful Dead band members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann will executive produce the film along with Garcia’s daughter, Trixie. Due to The Dead’s heavy involvement, Apple will be able to use the band’s music in the film, according to the New York Post.
The Dead formed in 1965 in San Francisco’s Bay Area. After releasing their self-titled debut album in 1967, they quickly became mainstays of the counterculture movement and were followed by devoted “Deadhead” fans for decades.
Garcia recorded 13 albums with the band, which still tours today as Dead and Co. fronted by singer/guitarist John Mayer.
The upcoming biopic isn’t the first time Scorsese has been involved with a Grateful Dead project. The legendary director previously produced the 2017 Amazon Prime documentary about the group, Long Strange Trip.
Hill will next be seen opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in the Adam McKay satirical comedy Don’t Look Up, which hits Netflix on Dec. 24.
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