Alright… so now there are TWO Jimi Hendrix films in the works. Recall my post from August on the announced attempt by Legendary Pictures, in correlation with Woodstock’s 40th anniversary, where Hendrix’s performance of The Star-Spangled Banner was a seminal moment of the original 1969 festival…

A writer had already been hired to work on the script, hoping that it will be approved for production by the Hendrix estate, which has been very protective of Jimi’s story – and rightfully so.

Now, yesterday, the The Hollywood Reporter reported that another Hendrix movie is in the proverbial pipeline, with Angry Films preparing Slide, described as “a fictionalized account of what happened during Hendrix’s ‘lost weekend’.”

The legendary story goes, in brief… in September 1969, Hendrix was the subject of a hoax kidnapping, orchestrated by his manager.

However, in the fictionalized Slide, the story will revolve around two gangsters, desperately trying to get away from a mob boss they double-crossed, who inadvertently kidnap Hendrix, then at the height of his career and drug addiction. Along the way, Hendrix ends up teaching one of the gangsters about honesty, and Hendrix learns to clean up his act.

Will this be a comedy, drama, thriller…?? I have no idea. The word THR uses is “quirky“.

Producer Carol Lewis is likening the project to Peter Bogdanovich’s The Cat’s Meow, a 2001 dramedy film I haven’t seen, calling it more of a road movie and not a biopic. Apparently, none of Hendrix’s music will be used, nor will any of his family be featured, and so, obtaining rights from the Hendrix estate won’t be an issue.

By all accounts, with Legendary Pictures’ true biopic married to the approval of Hendrix’s estate, expect to see Slide in theatres first, with shooting already scheduled to begin next year! R.H. Greene, is the writer/director.

No word on who will play Hendrix.

I’m not sure how I feel about this, but stay tuned… more as I know more.