Apple Snags Martin Scorsese And Jonah Hill For Jerry Garcia Biopic: Report

Apple Inc. CMCSA has signed Martin Scorsese to direct and produce a biopic on Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia starring Jonah Hill.

What Happened: Hill will co-produce the unnamed film through his Strong Baby company, according to a Deadline report based on unnamed sources. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who created the screenplay for “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” have been tasked with writing the script.

Hill and Scorsese previously worked together on the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” with the pair receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Director, respectively. This will be Scorsese’s second Grateful Dead-focused film. He was an executive producer on Amir Bar-Lev’s 2017 documentary “Long Strange Trip.”

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Why It Matters: This new project is Scorsese’s second production for Apple. He's currently in production on “Killers of the Flower Moon” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons. That film is being scheduled for a late 2022 release.

The project is also the latest prestige production from Apple featuring A-list talent. The company is also involved in Ridley Scott’s “Kitbag” starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon, Antoine Fuqua’s Civil War-era drama “Emancipation” starring Will Smith and an untitled thriller starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Photo: San Francisco-based street mural of Jerry Garcia, courtesy of Tom Joad's Ghost / Flickr Creative Commons