The Red Hot Chili Peppers Movie & Casting

I went down a Wikipedia worm hole the other day, that somehow landed me on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Wiki page. There were so many twists and turns, so many band members, so many crazy stories, that someone has to make a movie about it. 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers story spans 5 decades, with a ton of up and downs, drug use, and amazing music. As an amateur screen writer (by amateur, I mean terrible), I’ll break down all the crazy stories that need to be in the movie, the story structure and who we’d cast. The movie will include flashback to childhood of each band member to show how they became the people they are today. I don’t claim to be a RHCP expert, but I may need to pick up a few of their memoirs to get even deeper into the story and help fill in the holes.

Genre: Biographical, Drama/Comedy

Based On:  Anthony Kiedis (Singer), Flea (Bassist), Chad Smith (Drummer) & John Frusciante (Guitarist) and past Band members:

Logline: The story of a band willing to cross (and do) every line to find musical success and rock the world… While wearing socks on their dicks.   

Working Title: Under the Bridge or Scar Tissue

Casting the Red Hot Chili Peppers Movie

Anthony Kiedis – Obviously being able to replicate Kiedis’ style and mannerisms will be key in this role. I’m also a fan of actors that can actually sing (like Taron Egerton in the Elton John biopic), so it’s not just lip singing the whole time (which takes me out of the story). So in terms of look and their ability to sing, we’re going with Noah Centineo of Black Adam and To All the Boys I’ve Loved fame. This role may be a little bit darker than what he’s used to, but he has the looks and the voice to give it a crack.

Flea – Flea is a good actor in his own right appearing in a number of movies over the last 30 years. For this role we need someone that is a little off the wall that can play the eccentric talented artist. How about a guy that has been a bit crazy in real life as well in Ezra Miller. Miller has a musical background being in the band Sons of an Illustrious Father and I think could nail this role.

John Frusciante – The amazing guitarist is another eccentric character that is a a lot more quiet and reserved compared to the rest of the band, but would be a key part in the movie. Again looking for someone that actually looks like they know how to play guitar, so we went with Dylan Minnette who is most known for his role in 13 Reasons Why. But he’s also the lead singer and guitarist of the band Wallows so he won’t look out of place with a guitar in his hands.

Chad Smith – The easiest casting for Chad Smith would be Will Ferrell he looks exactly like him, and can play drums. But unfortunately Will Ferrell is a bit too old for this role being only 6 years younger than Smith. We went with Ansel Elgort, who, staying on theme, is a talented actor that also has musical chops. Not sure if he can drum, but he did a good job drumming out songs in Baby Driver. I think look wise if he grew out a beard and hair he could look like a young Chad Smith (although I can’t get Will Ferrell out of my mind).

Red Hot Chili Peppers Movie Outline

Here is a breakdown of the movie by key plot points. Obviously a lot of the story would have to come from the band itself and I’m sure there is a ton of humor and good natured elements, but most of the below is a bit depressing. 

ACT I – Origin Story

1) Flea & Anthony Kiedis Meet in High School – Like any great movie we’ll have the artists being the bullied outsiders, that are brought together by music. Flea, Kiedis, and original drummer Jack Irons and guitarist Hillel Slovak all met in high school and initially the band went by “Tony Flow” and “Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem”, before settling on Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

2) Beginners Luck – Next we’ll show how the their energy and love for music created an immediate buzz. They saw immediate success with their punk-funk music, selling 300k copies of their initial album. They were pretty much playing every night as they went on a 60 show in 64 days tour. Sure there are a lot of early day funny stories that could be added in here. The early RHCP days had similar energy but the music was a lot more punk/rap in style.

 

3) Second Album – In order to ramp up the funk, they turned to famous funk musician George Clinton to help produce their album, and while it didn’t propel them to stardom, it did get them a feature in the movie Thrashin‘.

4) Drug Use & Downward Trajectory – During the making of their second album Freaky Styley, Kiedis and Slovak both developed heroin addictions. It impacted their music and eventually became so bad that they ended up firing Kiedis. Flashback: Kiedis listening to rock legends Led Zeppelin & Jimi Hendrix and being introduced to drugs by his father at the age of 12. 

5) Rick Rubin Passes – The famous producer who helped a number of famous groups/bands, met with them but declined to help with their third album due to their drug problems.

6) Rock Bottom – Kiedis and Slovak both went to rehab and tried to get clean, but the withdrawals impacted their performances. Slovak at one point had a mental breakdown, and was unable to play a show. After touring ended, Slovak went home and overdosed on heroine while in seclusion. Kiedis was so distraught he didn’t even attend the funeral. Drummer Jack Irons decided to leave the band instead of seeing more of his friends die to drugs. It looked like everything was unravelling and this was the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

ACT II – Resurgence

1) Getting the Band Back Together – Kiedis finally took getting clean seriously and visited Slovak’s grave. Needing a new Drummer and Guitarist the band tries out a few people but eventually land on the core we know today, adding John Frusciante and Chad Smith. Frusciante was an avid fan of the band already and was an easy choice. Smith was considered more of a hair-metal drummer that the band initially wrote off, but he ended up winning them over. Flashback to show the independence of Chad Smith, teaching himself to drum at a young age and running away from home for a whole summer.

2) Immediate Chemistry – This is the RHCP we know and love as the quickly produced Mother’s Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magic (with Rick Rubin now back in the picture and helping them produce the ladder album).

3) Global Success – With hit songs Under the Bridge and Give It Away, the RHCP not surprisingly saw worldwide success. They started doing major tours and even had small bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins opening for them. Lot of great stories along the way here and we’d have a lot of reenactments of some of their famous live events.

4) Frusciante Drug Use – Everything seemly was going great until things started to unravel once again, this time it was their guitarist Frusciante as the bands sparkplug developing a heroin problem.

5) SNL Performance & Frusciante Leaving – The SNL performance is quite infamous as it either was a culmination of a lot of tension or the start of things. Would love to be a fly on the wall for how this all went down, but things seem to come to a head during the SNL performance below.  It looks like Frusciante was purposely sabotaging the performance (although the alternative version still didn’t sound half bad) – and his bandmates don’t seem too pleased. Shortly after this he left the band.

6) Frusciante Living in Squalor – Frusciante could really have a full movie made just about him. After he left the band he went to work on solo projects, but really he was heavily into drugs and pretty much homeless. If you want to watch something really depressing here is a documentary made about him in 1993, well before he hit rock bottom. Flashback to Fruciante playing guitar alone for 12-15 hours a day when he was younger.

7) Band Troubles – Frusciante was really the key piece to the band and after he left, their next album, One Hot Minute, wasn’t as strong and the addition of guitarist Dave Navarro wasn’t necessarily meshing. A number of shows ended up getting canceled because of injuries, drug relapses, and band relations. Navarro was eventually kicked out of the band in 1998 and once again it looked like it may be the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

ACT III – The Second Wind

1) Return of John Frusciante – With no guitarist, Flea decided they needed to get the old band back together, and that meant finding Frusciante who at this point was in such poor shape that he had to have surgery because of the scarring on his arms, and needed multiple oral surgeries to fix a deadly oral infection. Flea convinced Frusciante to get clean and eventually asked him to rejoin the band. Flashback to Flea at 13 comforting his mother after another violent outburst from his step-father.

2) Californication, By the Way, Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers went on to make 3 great albums and once again solidifying their place in rock-in-roll lore.

3) The band taking a break – After the three albums and touring for multiple years they take a break, but this one is differen.t This break will be the one time for positive reasons, they are taking a successful hiatus rather than a forced one. 

4) Ending – Accepting the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame award – culmination of their journey and the they still continue to rock to this day.

Lotta stuff happens after this obviously, but these are really the key areas. Well, this was supposed to be a short post but ended up being way longer than I anticipated and I had to read way more than usual (is there an audiobook version of Wikipedia?)

Let us know what you think, and what story lines and fun facts we missed out on. Reach out to us!