It’s the stuff of legend. In September 1969, Jimi Hendrix disappeared for a few days, in what was supposedly a hoax kidnapping staged by his manager. However now Angryfilms and Bellport Pictures are teaming up to say what they think happened with a fictional version of the story.
THR reports that Slide revolves around two gangsters, desperately trying to get away from a mob boss they double-crossed, who inadvertently kidnap Hendrix, who was 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.
However while a proper Hendrix biopic is in the works, with Max Borenstein writing the script for Legendary Pictures, this one is being pitched as a pure road movie and won’t used any of Jimi’s songs or family, so it doesn’t need to worry about rights issues. The producers compare it to the 20001 Peter Bogdanovich movie, The Cat’s Meow, which made a made a fictional murder mystery out of the death of real-life filmmaking pioneer Thomas Ince, and featured people playing the olikes of Charlie Chapin, William Randolph Heart and Marion Davies (Hearst’s mistress).
Slide if the sort of film that could be excellent or awful, but it’ll be interesting to see who they get to play Hendrix.