J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot banner are producing a scripted series about U2 for Netflix.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the as-yet untitled show will be written by Anthony McCarten, Hollywood’s go-to biopic scribe who has penned such based-on-a-true-story tales as The Theory of Everything (2014), Darkest Hour (2017), The Two Popes (2019), and most relevant for music fans, the cliche-riddled take on Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
The series is in the early stages of production. No story has been announced, and U2’s involvement is being kept under wraps, though the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are expected to sign off on the project and license the use of their music from across their 14-album discography.
U2 formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1976 with lead singer Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. With an interest in politics and an ear for anthemic rock, U2 have released some of the most beloved music of the last half century, including albums such as The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. More recently, the rockers contributed “Your Song Saved My Life,” to the soundtrack for Sing 2, and Bono said that he had only “recently” learned to sing.
As for McCarten, he wrote the script for a Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, which is in post-production. Meanwhile, Abrams is currently producing dozens of projects, including another sequel to Cloverfield, an animated Batman series with Matt Reeves, and Mission Impossible: 7 and Mission Impossible: 8.
