HOME TRAILERS RELEASE DATES PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS BOB $TENCIL NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

Stephen Gaghan Adapting Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels

by Brandon Lee Tenney
June 18, 2009
Source: ComingSoon

Hell's Angels. Those two words are able to conjure a myriad of emotions, no matter if you're eighteen or seventy-eight. Leather. Anarchy. Violence. Honor. Imposition. Counter-culture. Fear. ComingSoon reports from an interview with director Tony Scott that he and Stephen Gaghan are set to bring the notorious biker gang to the big screen. Gaghan, the Academy Award-winning scribe of Traffic, is currently adapting Hunter S. Thompson's nonfiction work Hell's Angels - a first person account of the gang from inside its ranks. In order to conduct his research in the 1960's, Thompson became a member of the gang itself.

He was able to provide a startling, up close and personal account of the gang, his experiences as a member, as well as the people that make up Hell's Angels. The work displays a more sober voice for Thompson, one that evolves throughout its writing from "outsider to sympathetic defender," as Adam Rosenberg puts it.

This isn't the first time Thompson has been adapted, as you most certianly know. Terry Gilliam successfully brought the much more psychotropic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the big screen in 1998. Though, the pairing of Gilliam to Thompson, and vice versa, seems a more natural mesh than that of Thompson to Tony Scott, who may not direct, but will at least produce. Gaghan, though, is an apt choice to pen the adaptation. His ability to write seemingly unsympathetic characters in Traffic gives me confidence that Hell's Angels will be both an honest account of the gang itself as well as a faithful adaptation of Thompson's work.

Tony Scott is truly the wild card here. I'm a huge fan of Scott. Though his films are never transcendent, he's a fearless director when it comes to visual experimentation. There's something to be said in regard to letting Thompson's words just speak for themselves. And I certainly wouldn't want to see a Gaghan script akin to Traffic get the Domino treatment - but Scott's dynamism may be just the lens the material needs. Regardless, watching the experiences of Hell's Angels as distilled by Hunter S. Thompson as distilled by Stephen Gaghan makes me very, very excited. But should the director's chair read a different name?

Explore tags: Movie News, Opinions

Billy Jack

been looking forward to this movie and hope this movie is done correct and accurately. It is a great book. Just tell the true story of the Angels and don't get weird or try too hard to dramatize American history. I would think that Sonny Barger would want it that way as well. Additionally, I don't think Hunter Thompson ever became a Patch while "riding with" the Hells Angels.
Corran Horn

Gaghan is an excellent writer, but I'm leary of Tony Scott as the director. Having not read the book, I can't come up with a name myself, but if THE RUM DIARY turns out well, maybe Bruce Robinson should be considered.
Fred T

Thompson was never a member of the Hells Angels and never claimed have been. Not a good start for a non-fiction movie.
Mr T

I know the book is titled Hell's Angels, but just for the record the Motorcycle Club Hells Angels has no apostrophe as stated at the beginning of this article.
Jayne Kelly

Gimme a break. Hunter Thompson a Hells Angel? No way. First - spell the name the way the club does. Hells Angels (not Hell's Angels). Then get the facts straight. Then forget about the movie because there is no way this could possibly be close to reality with the screw ups to date!
big bill

this was a cut and paste job by writer brandon lee what-ever thats why he has no source listed thompson was a hang around at best and his work from the 60's is dated and stale
billy jack

Whats up with this movie? Seems like just a bunch of talk.
Rigo Putango

It'll work, only if Johnny Depp is involved. Him and Hunter were close friends and Johnny just finished the Rum Diary, so Hells Angels would be the next logical step, no?
Fnord

You know John Cusack is just as capable as Depp to play Hunter.

Olivares722

fuck you

Moonshade4

The prolonged rape scene in the book has prevented it from being considered previously as a film. Since the scene is so intrinsic to the narrative, and also there was a famous rape trial for H.A. after the book came out, movie companies have passed on this. The book is not dated nor is it inaccarate. Those who have read it I'm sure would all agree it is immensely suitable for a great movie. Hunter approached the Angels and asked to interview them and tape them. He asked their permission and their advice and opinions. He was never a member of the Angels. If you read the book -- he paid a price for his involvement with them and nearly lost an eye. I wouldn't disparage someone like Tony Scott. I'm sure he could do a great job directing such a film. Why not?