Jimi Hendrix Biopic Gets Jackie Jormp-Jomp'd

The interesting thing about the Jimi Hendrix biopic starring Andre 3000, All is By My Side, directed byJohn Ridley, is that the Hendrix estate is not giving the filmmakers permission to use any of Jimi Hendrix’s music – much like Jenna’s fictional Janis Joplin biopic on 30 Rock, Jackie Jormp-Jomp. Luckily for the filmmakers, Hendrix was famous for playing a lot of covers of other people’s songs, and the plan is apparently to focus on those, with Andre 3000 singing them himself.

The film – set in London in 1966 and 1967 – will include Benjamin’s new versions of covers that Hendrix performed during those years, shortly before the release of his landmark debut, Are You Experienced. Audiences will see Benjamin singing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (which Hendrix famously performed in a London club with members of the Beatles in the audience), “Wild Thing,” “Hound Dog,” Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” and Elmore James’ “Bleeding Heart,” plus two songs, “Future Trip” and “Driving South,” that Hendrix played as a backup musician for Curtis Knight and the Squires.

If the movie were to include songs Hendrix wrote, like “Purple Haze” or “The Wind Cries Mary,” the producers would have needed permission from Experience Hendrix, which owns the copyrights to the material. But according to McKittrick, the film was always set in Hendrix’ pre-fame era, so neither he or his team ever approached the Hendrix estate. “This is the story of Jimi being discovered as a backup musician and how he went to London and became Jimi Hendrix,” says the producer. McKittrick says that focusing on early stories about Hendrix – like the times he jammed with Cream and met Eric Clapton – is preferable to a biopic about Hendrix’s full life story. “That would be like making a movie about Kurt Cobain,” he says. “We all know how that story ends.”

Via Filmdrunk