Johnny Thunders Biopic In The Works

The New York Dolls guitarist’s life story will get the big-screen treatment, courtesy of the ‘Lemonade’ co-director.

Johnny Thunders, seminal punk guitarist for the New York Dolls and frontman of the Heartbreakers, will have his life story honored with a biopic, set to be released in 2017. TheWrap reports that the film will be adapted from Nina Antonia’s acclaimed biography Johnny Thunders in Cold Blood — with Antonia also serving as one of the film’s screenwriters.

The movie will also be directed by Jonas Akerlund, a longtime MTV fixture for his work on music videos by Madonna, The Prodigy, Lady Gaga and many more, and one of the directors behind Beyoncé’s Lemonade visual album. “Rock ‘n’ Roll movies are always something of an awkward beast to nail,” Antonia says of the decision to hire Akerlund. “Do you get an insider or an outsider to direct? Finally we got both in Jonas Akerlund.” Akerlund is also scheduled to direct Lords of Chaos, about the Norwegian black metal group Mayhem, in 2017.