The biopic can often be a double-edged sword, especially if the subjects or their relatives are involved in the production. Sometimes the seedier and more unpalatable moments from their past are glossed over in favor of hagiography, but there aren’t many ways to sugarcoat the life and times of Ozzy Osbourne.
As per Variety, Rocketman scribe and Academy Award-nominated Billy Elliott writer Lee Hall has been tapped by Sony to bring the life story of the Black Sabbath frontman and rock legend to the big screen. Osbourne may have won a new legion of fans at the turn of the millennium thanks to the antics depicted on his reality TV series, but he’s also one of the most enduringly popular, iconic, important and influential figures in the history of heavy music.
The film isn’t going to shy away from the more troublesome aspects of his life and career either; which includes an often heated and dangerous marriage to wife Sharon, levels of drug and alcohol abuse that would have killed a lot of people, his resurgence with the Ozzfest festival and of course, that time he bit the head off a live bat on stage.
The project will feature tracks from the Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo back catalogues, and given that Rocketman didn’t shy away from Elton John’s personal travails and substance abuse, this could be a worthy exploration of a truly fascinating figure.
