The Feelgood movie of the year is upon us.
On Tuesday, Netflix released the first trailer for The Dirt, a raucous biopic of Mötley Crüe, the head-banging legends behind such multi-platinum albums as Dr. Feelgood and Shout at the Devil.
Based on Neil Strauss’ 2002 biography, The Dirt tracks the Los Angeles’ combo troubled history, in which the band’s four members—frontman Vince Neil, drummer Tommy Lee, bassist Nikki Sixx, and guitarist Mick Mars—managed to survive years of tragedy, illness, tabloid rumors, and all-around excess. The film, directed by Jackass alum Jeff Tremaine, stars The Punisher‘s Daniel Webber as Neil; rapper Machine Gun Kelly as Lee; English actor Douglas Booth as Sixx; and Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon as Mars.
The trailer includes several Top 40 hits from Crüe’s discography, including “Home Sweet Home” and “Kickstart My Heart.”
The Dirt is the latest in a rush of music-focused films, which has become an especially hot category in recent years. The Elton John biopic Rocketman is out in May, and there are in-the-works films focusing on such artists as Prince, Celine Dion, and David Bowie. The glut is no doubt thanks to the success of such films as 2015’s Straight Outta Compton, which made $160 million in the United States; 2017’s All Eyez on Me, the hit Tupac Shakur tale; and I Can Only Imagine, the surprise-smash story of Bart Millard, frontman of the Christian-music act MercyMe.
But the biggest music-biopic of all time is last year’s Queen chronicle Bohemian Rhapsody, which has made close to $1 billion worldwide, and earned five Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nod for frontrunner Rami Malek.
Netflix doesn’t release its viewership numbers, so it will be impossible to know how The Dirt compares to its contemporaries. But expect the film to kick-start lots of conversation when it debuts March 22.
