After years in development limbo, Mötley Crüe’s biopic The Dirt is finally coming to Netflix in March, and the streaming service released the first trailer today.
Based off the bestselling 2001 autobiography of the same name, The Dirt chronicles the lives and careers of “The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band”: singer Vince Neil, bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, and guitarist Mick Mars. The band’s debauched lifestyle, over-the-top stage show, and arena-ready rock anthems made them one of the biggest acts of the 1980s. It also brought them to the brink of death—and, in the case of Sixx, who overdosed on heroin in 1987 and was declared legally dead, over the brink. (Paramedics revived the bassist, and the incident served as inspiration for the band’s smash hit, “Kickstart My Heart.”)
Their music made them famous. Their lives made them infamous. #TheDirt premieres on #Netflix March 22, 2019. pic.twitter.com/FUmoVNCwtb
— Mötley Crüe (@MotleyCrue) February 19, 2019
The Dirt’s first trailer manages to cram several of these tragedies into its two-and-a-half-minute runtime. Along with Sixx’s overdose, the trailer hints at Neil’s drunk-driving accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, Mars’ struggle with inflammatory bone disease ankylosing spondylitis, and Lee’s messy divorce from actress Heather Locklear.
Mostly, though, the trailer plays like a hero’s origin story, focusing on what the Crüe did best: rocking hard and partying harder. “If we wanna knock people on their asses, then we’ve gotta give ‘em a show. I’m talking like a stadium show in the clubs,” Sixx says in the trailer. The band graduates from clubs to stadiums, leaving plenty of shattered beer bottles and trashed hotel rooms in its wake.
The Dirt’s cast also boasts several big names from the acting and music worlds. Scrappy Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly plays the hyperactive Lee, while Sixx is played by Douglas Booth, who first rose to prominence for his Boy George portrayal in the BBC Two film Worried About the Boy. The film gets an extra boost of star power from Pete Davidson, who plays the band’s A&R man Tom Zutaut.
So far, The Dirt’s cast does not include anybody playing John Corabi, who replaced Neil for a stint in the mid-‘90s and sang on Mötley Crüe’s 1994 self-titled album. It remains to be seen whether The Dirt will touch on the band’s fall from grace during the grunge era and subsequent resurgence in the early 2000s, or only focus on their most successful career arc, ending with their chart-topping 1989 album, Dr. Feelgood. In either case, the biopic should be a wild ride.
Watch The Dirt trailer below.
