As long as Mick Jagger can keep wiggling his hips, and Keith Richards stays alive, The Rolling Stones won't be retiring anytime soon. But even then, it's hard to believe the band's 50th anniversary is right around the corner. To help in what will probably be a blitzkrieg of marketing and merchandise, a career-spanning documentary is on the way.
Brett Morgen, the director behind "The Kid Stays In The Picture" and "Chicago 10," will take the helm on a film that will trace the band from their origins in the early '60s, and visit them on the road, behind the scenes and in the studio. The untitled picture already has a September release date being lined up, and given that it's not too far away, we're guessing this will be a pretty glossy, perhaps not quite substantive piece. The band have been subject to many films over the years — mostly concert docs — and even "Stones In Exile," about the making of their seminal Exile On Main Street, was surprisingly bland, rehashing many of the stories that are already well known, and failing to dive much deeper.
Frankly, we'd love to see the band finally lift their iron grip off "Cocksucker Blues" for their 50th anniversary. The notorious, frequently bootlegged movie by Robert Frank is a no holds barred chronicle of the band's 1972 tour, and the filmmaker and group battled over the movie, and now it can only be screened if Robert Frank is present. By now, the band's debaucherous days are both well known and behind them, so it would be nice for the picture to get some kind of proper, cursory release. But that likely won't happen, so we'll just have to wait for Morgen's doc, which will arrive in September courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment. [Deadline]
