Variety is reporting that a documentary covering the life of singer Chris Cornell is in the works, with Brad Pitt signed on as producer. Also producing will be Cornell’s widow Vicky, with Pitt and Peter Berg’s production company Film 45 taking the lead in production. Berg is also slated to direct.
Film 45 is Pitt and Berg’s production arm that focuses mainly on non-scripted works, but Berg also recently produced two Mark Wahlberg scripted films, Wonderland and Mile 22 .
Cornell was one of the godfathers of the late 1980s and early 1990s grunge music scene out of the Seattle area, exploding onto the scene as the front man for Soundgarden. His distinctive vocals and incredible range as a singer helped propel Soundgarden and the Seattle-area music scene to fame along with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains. The band achieved its pinnacle of fame in 1994 with the album Superunknown , which featured the Grammy-winning singles “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun.”
After Soundgarden broke up in 1997, Cornell went on to form the super-group Audioslave with members of Rage Against the Machine. Soundgarden reunited in 2010 and released their sixth album King Animal . The band was in the midst of a tour when Cornell died after a Detroit show in May 2017.
Cornell’s death, ruled a suicide, hit the music world hard, and he was honored with a posthumous Grammy at the 2019 awards show, his third win after being nominated for 16 of the awards. Cornell’s children, Toni and Christopher, delivered a heartfelt acceptance speech on Cornell’s behalf, as covered in the Inquisitr , bringing tears to the eyes of many in the audience when they described the singer as “…the greatest father and our hero.”
In 2009, Cornell admitted he had previously been to rehab to help him deal with an Oxycontin addiction, and although he claimed then that he had been sober since 2002, he was known to have substance abuse problems on and off his entire adult life. Vicky Cornell has gone on record saying that Cornell’s behavior started changing once he began taking benzodiazepine about a year before he died to help him cope with a shoulder injury.
Vicky Cornell along with a number of luminaries from the music world, including Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam, put on a benefit concert in honor of her late husband. Brad Pitt was among those making an appearance at the Los Angeles show, along with guests Miley Cyrus, Foo Fighters, and Metallica.
