Mick Jagger Bringing ’20 Feet From Stardom’ to TV and Broadway
Mick Jagger is planning on spending some time out of the spotlight so others can have a turn. The Rolling Stones frontman is currently looking into turning 20 Feet From Stardom – the Oscar-nominated documentary that tells the stories of several important backup singers and featured interviews with Jagger – into a one-hour scripted TV series and a Broadway musical. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both adaptations would concentrate on the lives of backup singers who support music luminaries, but the TV series would depart from the film’s subject matter by focusing on contemporary artists.
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Jagger said he is hoping that some of the singers featured in the documentary, such as Darlene Love and Lisa Fischer, will appear in the Broadway version. Love previously appeared on the Great White Way in the Broadway adaptation of John Waters’ film Hairspray.
The Stones singer would executive produce the TV show with Victoria Pearman, who has produced several Stones-related films including 2012’s Crossfire Hurricane and 2010’s Stones in Exile, via their Jagged Films company. The film’s director, Morgan Neville, would also serve as an executive producer.
After its Sundance premiere last year, 20 Feet From Stardom went on to become the highest-grossing documentary of the year. The film covers the history of backup singers, touching on Ike Turner’s Ikettes and focusing heavily on the stories of singers including Love, Tata Vega, Claudia Lennear and two women who have sung with the Stones, Lisa Fischer and Merry Clayton – the latter of whom recorded the haunting “shot away” backup line on the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” “I was kicking ass and taking names every time I opened my mouth,” Clayton told Rolling Stone last year about her experience as a backup singer. “I knew I was singing my face off.”
Darlene Love recently told Rolling Stone that she literally screamed when she learned the documentary had received an Oscar nom. “My husband was in the other room and said, ‘What? What?'” she said. “Now they can put ‘Oscar nominee’ next to my name along with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”