“CBGB,” an upcoming cinematic chronicle of the famed New York music venue, features a veritable who’s-who of stars playing the great and good (and bad!) of the punk rock scene which centred on the venue in the 1980s. Justin Bartha plays Stiv Bators (of Dead Boys), Malin Akerman plays Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, Mickey Sumner plays Patti Smith, Rupert Grint plays the Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins is Iggy Pop with Alan Rickman as the legendary Hilly Kristal, the founder of CBGB. The film, directed by Randall Miller (“Bottle Shock“), will be out later this year and a collection of ten neon-colored posters (via Hollywood Reporter), as well as a handful of stills from the movies, give some strong hints as to what kind of movie we’re in for.
The question does remain whether this will be a fully authentic historical drama, chronicling the now long-closed venue, or if it will be more of a kind of vanity project where kids from “Harry Potter” and the like get to scuzz up their image playing long lost punk legends. Either way, these posters and photos give us a sense of what the project will be going for tonally — knowing but never too kitschy. We do love the “50,000 Amazing Bands. One Disgusting Bathroom” tagline because, if you ever made it down to CBGB’s, that was the real takeaway — that it was completely gross.
“CBGB” will be out later this year.
