HBO bringing first authorized Kurt Cobain doc to screen

PanARMENIAN.Net - HBO is bringing the first fully authorized documentary about Kurt Cobain to the screen, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

The film, titled Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, is being shepherded by co-producers HBO Documentary Films and Universal Pictures International Entertainment Content Group. Montage of Heck will debut exclusively on HBO in the U.S. in 2015. Universal will roll out the film internationally in theaters next year.

Oscar-nominated director Brett Morgen, who previously tackled the Rolling Stones for HBO with the documentary Crossfire Hurricane, is helming the film, eight years in the making. Visual artist Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of the late Nirvana singer, guitarist and songwriter, is executive producing.

Montage of Heck marks the first documentary to be made with the cooperation of Cobain’s family. Morgen was granted unprecedented access to Cobain's archives, including never-before-seen home movies, recordings, artwork, photography, journals, demos and songbooks. The film features dozens of Nirvana songs and performances, as well as previously unheard Cobain originals.

"I started work on this project eight years ago," Morgen said. "Like most people, when I started, I figured there would be limited amounts of fresh material to unearth. However, once I stepped into Kurt’s archive, I discovered over 200 hours of unreleased music and audio, a vast array of art projects — oil paintings, sculptures — countless hours of never-before-seen home movies, and over 4,000 pages of writings that together help paint an intimate portrait of an artist who rarely revealed himself to the media."

The film is being made in association with Public Road Productions and The End of Music. Morgen is producing alongside Danielle Renfrew Behrens. Larry Mestel and David Byrnes are also executive producing. David Morrison is co-executive producing, while Sara Bernstein and Sheila Nevins are serving in a producing capacity for HBO.