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Tours de Farce: You Can’t Judge A Concert By Its Cover
Of course, this is not the first time Tinsel Town has turned to the genre known for such steamy potboilers as Book Me Deadly and I, The Audience. In development are such concert noir stories as Amphitheatre Confidential, featuring Dave Matthews Band and The Usual Groupies, with John Wesley Harding being considered for the role of the police lieutenant.
Perhaps one of the hottest properties in the concert noir genre is the series of novels about a hard-boiled female independent promoter. Starting with A is for AC/DC, and currently extending through M is for MxPx, each book contains some of the hottest concert scenes ever depicted in text, including steamy renditions of Superdrag tuning their guitars and Gary Numan goofing around on the tour bus. Of course, each book also has the standard murder, blackmail and service charge subplots that fans have come to expect from the genre. Variety reports that both MGM and Castle Rock are bidding for the film rights.
But the recent popularity of concert fiction isn’t limited to movies and books. The Pox Television Network has high hopes for its small-screen adaptation of the series of movies about two booking agents who fight crime and corruption while scheduling shows for blink-182 and Our Lady Peace. Debuting this fall, Lethal Cell Phone stars Pee Wee Herman and J.J. Walker in the roles made famous by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. While still in development, Quentin Tarantino of Pulp Tour Accounting fame is rumored to be on board to direct the pilot episode.
Yes, concert noir is hot, and no one knows better than retired roadie extraordinaire, Ian MacTavish. “I don’t understand why everyone is surprised at the success of Flannible,” says the famous roadie, who’s serving as the creative consultant on this summer’s upcoming remake of The Unbookables, starring Marilyn Manson as gothic-rock federal agent, Elliot Ness. “After all, Hollywood has been feasting upon itself for years.”