News broke today about the possibility of a movie based on the highly acclaimed book by Greg Renoff – Van Halen Rising – the book that charts the iconic band’s journey from Pasadena locals to rock legends. What the chances are it’ll happen, we don’t know yet. But it’s possible. Renoff has posted an update to Facebook: Some exciting news broke today, about me and my book Van Halen Rising via the video below. A few years back, my book was optioned by a producer. What that means is that the producer and his team had the exclusive right to commission a screenplay and to try to get a deal for a movie based on Van Halen Rising . Fast forward to today, and there IS a screenplay based on my book, written by screenwriter, producer, and director Jeff Wadlow. Jeff’s enthusiasm for the project (and naturally the Van Halen origin story) is off the charts, and accordingly, he’s worked incredibly hard on his script. I can’t describe the narrative arc in the script better than Jeff, so check out his take on his own script in the video below. Obviously, I think the Van Halen origin story is compelling, cinematic, and offers key insights about the place and time that birthed the band and its incredible music. Full disclosure: I am biased, but that’s what I think. Needless to say, when you spend five years & conduct 200+ original interviews while writing a book, you believe there’s something very worthy that you are pursuing as a historian and author. As of today, the next potential step is for it to go out to film financiers at some point in the future. What comes next remains to be seen, needless to say. Anyone who knows anything (and I know very little) about the movie business will tell you that getting from script to screen is no easy feat. So there may, or may not, ever be a movie based on my book. Let me repeat: There may, or may not, ever be a movie based on my book. It’s exciting to think there might be, but expectations are best tempered by reality. That said, I am extremely grateful to Jeff and his team for all their hard work to get to this point! Today I am also thinking of the well-established, gifted individuals who read my book before it was released and said: this is good. I like this. I will endorse it: writer Chuck Klosterman director/writer Brian Koppelman & MTV VJ & DJ Martha Quinn. Thank you for believing in me. – Greg Renoff Limited Edition Eddie Van Halen ’78 Funko Pop Director/Screenwriter/Producer Jeff Wadlow’s IMDB page Grab Van Halen Rising at Van Halen Store
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