The seminal British rock band The Kinks are about to become celluloid heroes.
Director Julien Temple, who has earned his rock and roll film cred by helming The Great Rock N’ Roll Swindle and the documentaries The Filth And The Fury and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, is working with the band’s frontman Ray Davies to hammer out an approach for a film documenting the band’s rise and the often tempetuous relationship between Davies and his brother, guitarist Dave Davies. The film will be titled You’ve Really Got Me after the band’s first big hit. Temple described the project to Screen Daily thusly-
At the heart of it is the extraordinary love-hate relationship between these two brothers: love/hate, sibling rivalry is at the core. I think it’s a very rich social, cultural nexus around The Kinks. Their story is the untold story of all those big bands of the 1960s.
Temple also states that whomever is eventually cast in the film will be required to play the music of the Kinks and not just mime along to pre-recorded tracks, an approach he diplomatically describes as “problematic.”
The Kinks were formed back in 1964 in North London with the Davies brothers at its core.Drawing on such diverse influences as blues, country, bluegrass and British music hall tradition, the band’s catalog of hits run from “You Really Got Me” to 1983’s nostalgic “Come Dancing.” More recent British rock bands such as Blur and Oasis have often cited the group as a major influence. Comedian/director Bobcat Goldthwait is currently developing a film musical based on the Kinks 1975 concept album Schoolboys In Disgrace.
