A PLAN to make a film of the life of Michael Hutchence, the rock star who killed himself in 1997, has run into strong opposition from his family.
Nick Egan, a British film director and friend of the INXS frontman, is looking for actors to play the roles of the singer, as well as the late Paula Yates, his girlfriend, and Bob Geldof.
The last years of Hutchence’s troubled life were made worse by Yates’s fierce battle with Geldof, her former husband, for custody of their children. Hutchence, an Australian, hanged himself in a Sydney hotel room in 1997 at the age of 37.
A spokesman for INXS said that none of the current band members (who have reformed with a new frontman) had been contacted about the making of the film.
Hutchence’s mother, brother and sister are angry at not being consulted.
“No one has ever made any contact with us about doing a film,” said Patricia Glassop, who co-wrote a book on her son’s life.
“Are they going to look at his younger days growing up? How would they know anything about that when they weren’t there?” she asked. “I would be interested to know who they are going to cast, and who would play me.”
Among the actors Egan is considering for the role of Hutchence are Johnny Depp, Hayden Christensen, Eric Bana and a little-known singer-actor from Australia called Michael Piccirilli.
Egan, director of the yet to be released Red Light Runners, about petty gangsters, starring Harvey Keitel and Vinnie Jones, is better known as a rock video director. He has also designed album covers, including the multi-platinum INXS album Kick.
The new biopic is due to go into pre-production in the next three months and is scheduled for release next year.
Egan described his friend as “no saint”, adding: “Michael was experimental and hedonistic — that did involve the use of drugs. There were moments of absolute out-of-control narcissism, and other times of pure calm, when he wrote his songs.”
Hutchence’s string of girlfriends included the singer Kylie Minogue and supermodel Helena Christensen.
The film’s producers say they are planning to contact both the family and the band at a later stage.