If you want to win an Oscar these days, all you need to do is strap on some spangly shades and pretend to be a dead singer. How much that's got to do with the announcement of a Michael Hutchence INXS biopic remains to be seen.
Slide Away, the long-rumoured biopic of Michael Hutchence – the singer with rubbish 1980s Australian band INXS who died by hanging himself with a belt from a hotel door while he was having a wank – is finally looking as if it'll start rolling into production sometime soon. How many people will actually want to go and see Slide Away is another matter, though – after all, everyone knows how it ends.
The announcement of a Michael Hutchence biopic is hardly surprising – literally everyone who has ever even looked at a microphone in their lives are getting the biopic treatment. Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan and Missy Elliott are all having their lives scrubbed up into jumped-up TV movies that will inexplicably get nominated for an Oscar, so why not Michael Hutchence too? After all, his life was pretty perfectly mapped out for a movie: sing a shit song, shag Kylie, sing a shit song, shag Paula Yates, die in a hotel with a belt around your neck and your knob in your hand. What more could you ask for?
Slide Away, for that's the title of the Michael Hutchence biopic, has been floating around for a while – so much so that Johnny Depp has already decided he doesn't want anything to do with it – but now it looks like it's definitely going to happen, since producer Clark Westerman has recruited music video director Nick Egan to take charge of things. Westerman says:
“I said, ’Somebody else is going to do it, and they are not going to do it as well as you would because you knew him so well.' [The wank death] is not the memory of what we are after, and that’s not the story of who the man is. What we are aiming for is the journey through a person’s life via their head.”
According to reports, Slide Away has had a troubled conception since the production involved gaining the cooperation of the family and trust of Michael Hutchence, and presumably finding funding for a vanity project about a singer in a terrible band who people mainly know about because he died while he was wanking was tricky too. Apparently Clark Westerman and Nick Egan are now sifting through the INXS catalogue for the soundtrack. Hopefully they're not looking for a half-decent tune, because they'll have a long wait.
Read more:
INXS' Hutchence Due For Film Treatment – MSNBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]
music taste says
hi there, i just read your blog on the new michael hutchence movie and noticed that your opinion of inxs music is very low. what are your prefered bands of interest that have real tallent?
regards,
michael
Pam says
what a shame you can’t see what the rest of the world does. Just do me one favour. Go to any MH website and read what Michael meant to his fans across the globe.
He was an amazing singer, songwriter, performer and was on his way to becoming a very talented actor.
And please do share who you think is a worthy band?
Heidi L says
Yes, it is a shame that you have absolutely no idea the talent this man had. He was a beautiful soul full of amazing creativity. Michael Hutchence along with INXS have so many fabulous songs that have made many people happy. If you had a ears and eyes perhaps you would have seen the talent this man and the band had. I can’t beleive you woul think that few people care about “Slide Away” I for one would love to see the movie…there are many fans that do still care and love Michael.
Timmyfan says
Yes, please do share with us what your idea of a ‘good’ band is. I’m not a Michael fan (as my name implies, I prefer Tim) but I do recognize the man had talent! He was his own writer and performer. What, to you, represents true talent?
Don L says
How many times does this have to be explained? Michael Hutchence did NOT die while engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. The official coroner report clearly states that there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE to support this claim. None.
In addition, there’s plenty of evidence that he was horribly depressed, on a cocktail of anti-depressants and had just finished a huge fight with Bob Geldof and Paula Yates prior to his suicide.
This rumor about Michael dying while “having a wank” is pernicious and despicable. It’s only repeated by lazy, ignorant people who haven’t done their homework. I’m looking at you, Stuart, you douche nozzle.
Richard87 says
Stuart, your just a malicious gobshite with about as much journalistic ability and musical taste as a retarded donkey. You just wish you had a touch of the glamour or success that MH had, in your useless life
Ja says
It was suicide…Hutchence was very experienced sexually, he would not have used his belt in the way that he did if he did not mean to off himself. Read the description of how he tied the belt. Besides, if you have ever watched him perform or do yoga, you would know that he knew about “breath control”. And,
1. there are much nicer/more comfortable places in that room at the Ritz to masturbate than against the back of the hotel door between 10-10:40A.M., (when his ex-girlfriend, whom he had just called on the phone crying, knocked on his door).
2. there was no paraphernalia, no magazines, no porn playing on the telly.
Follow the phone calls he received and the last ones he made prior to killing himself -they tell a great deal of the story:
he argued with both Yates and Geldof, he was manipulated to believe that he would not see his baby girl again. They did this to a man with a brain injury that caused depression and worsened his drug addictions – Yates and Geldof were evil that morning. Who knows what kind of threats they made against Michael on that last morning of his life?
Jennifer says
You really should have done your homework, you lazy piece of shite, before writing this horrific little article. Hopefully, you’ll read what “Ja” wrote on 1/11/10. The loss of such a great talent becomes clearer as the years go on. No one could ever come close to replacing him. He was one of a kind, loved by many and deeply missed.
Spider says
They should do an extremely detailed documentary that reenacts those last phone calls with Geldof and Yates – it will make it easier for those with slow minds, (like Stuart Heritage), to figure out that Hutch was being extorted and was driven to suicide by a couple of evil monsters.
lisa says
Since the person your referring to is deceased and has no way to defend themselves why don’t you allow them a bit of respect and keep your cynical thoughts to yourself, manners do go a far way in the world . What did he ever do to you?
RIP Hutch we got your back Love, Lisa
esperanza figueroa campos says
no tiene ni idea de lo que dice y son muchisimos fans que lo recuerdan, es imposible olvidarlo.Muy lamentable articulo,antes de escribir informese,ya que michael era unico.
jerry says
yeah you are pretty much an idiot. To not like someones music or talent is one thing, but to disrespect a dead person makes you the ultimate piece of sh–!!! O well Michael has been dead for 14 years and people are still interested in his life, when you die most people will probably forget you in 14 days! But hey he sold millions of albums, played hundreds of concert, had some pretty nice girls and quite a few fans, i guess you would be what they call a hater, and that’s putting it very very politely!!!!
NATALY . says
IDIOT YOU HAVE NOT EVEN IDEA OF MUSIC, NOT OF WHAT I INCLUDE INXS Worldwide… GARBAGE YOU ARE YOUR WITH YOUR OPINIONS WITHOUT BRAIN
rose says
FOR YOUR INFORMATION MR. HUTCHENCE SUFFERED A MASSIVE HEAD INJURY 5 YEARS BEFORE HIS DEATH. IT WAS COMPLICATIONS FROM IT THAT LED TO HIS DEATH. ACCIDENTAL OR DELIBERATE SUICIDE. READ ONE OF THE BEST BANDS EVER’S BOOK. ‘STORY TO STORY’ DID YOU KNOW THAT THEY PIONEERED THE MUSIC VIDEO? THEY WERE MAKING MUSIC VIDEOS IN AUSTRALIA BEFORE MTV EVEN EXISTED.SLIDE AWAY IS GARBAGE AND HUTCHENCE GO AND LISTEN TO TODAY’S GENERATIONS MUSIC, YOUR BRITNEY AND BIEBER. LEAVE INSX FOR US PEOPLE WHO KNOW AND REMMBER WHAT REAL MUSIC IS. FAMILY AND INXS WILL NEVER SIGN OFF ON SOMETHING SO STUPID AS THE SLIDE AWAY MOVE.THAT IS WHY IN 2012 IT STILL HAS NOT BEEN MADE.
iesha says
Britney Spears is a 20th century Actor /singer 1981-2009
Pamela says
Still waiting, and will continue to do so. I think Michael was the greatest talent ever. Was robbed of the true rockstar statis that he so deserved. It’s amazing what trying to keep up a big machine for everbodies benefit will do. Depressed, or is the word Stressed, nowadays the right term. RIP Michael, Love always, To the Loved One
ste hanlon dublin says
well i just wanna say to the guy who posted this? hmmm whats your name guess nobody knows you as your a nobody and Michael was a somebody, you have no respect for Michaels family or close friends and i guess this makes you not only a fool but a heartless person, and if you knew anything at all about music which obviously you don’t you’d know that INXS were and still are one of the best bands and nest live bands there ever was. i don’t usually post things or pay attention to people like this but felt i had to as im a fan of Hutch, Inxs, an for Michaels fans an fans of Inxs an most important Michaels family and friends i felt i should say something. in anyway to the fool who put this post up get a life, Inxs and Hutch for ever :-) xx
ste hanlon dublin says
I couldn’t have said it better myself Lisa :-)
Pamela too says
I can’t believe this piece of scum, so-called writer has such a low opinion of him. This guy must bathe in his own self hatred and misery on a daily basis. And he OBVIOUSLY has no taste in music, no appreciation for true talent, charisma, and allure, and absolutely no respect for the dearly departed. It’s folks like this loser that are part of the reason that Hutchence is no longer with us. There are millions of fans, myriad family and friends, and, most importantly, five of his best mates that miss him terribly, I’m PROUD to count myself among them. I’m so happy and touched to see so many of his admirers rally to honor Michael’s memory and to give this writer a good finger wag. Personally, I think this Stuart guy should ditch his keyboard and play with his own tallywacker more often. Perhaps then he’d be a happier man.
Side note to readers: If you’re reading this and you or someone you know is experiencing depression and contemplating suicide, please ask for help and/or call a suicide hotline. There’s no reason this world should lose another beautiful soul in the way we lost our Michael.
Pamela too says
My first comment, for some reason, posted as a reply to someone else’s (see above) but I just wanted to say THANK YOU to my fellow Hutchence/INXS fans for going to battle for him. We WILL keep his memory alive. And we WILL keep the story straight. Bless you all and bless Michael’s sweet soul.