Mike Fleming

The members of the heavy metal band Metallica are planning to self-finance a 3D feature film, I’m told. The band has hired producer Charlotte Huggins to get the ball rolling. She has produced the 3D films Journey to the Center of the Earth, and just completed the sequel Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which stars Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine and Josh Hutcherson. The band’s now looking for a director with the stones to direct a Metallica-style feature. This would be the first major film made by the band members, but Metallica has already made a strong impression on the medium. Their decision to lend their music to Paradise Lost, the 1996 documentary on the West Memphis 3 that was directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, helped give that film weight and helped create international outrage over how three teens could be convicted of mass murder without a shred of physical evidence but an abundance of innuendo. Prosecutors cited the defendants’ passion for Metallica music as a strike against them, and it took 17 years for the trio to finally be freed. The band then starred for Berlinger and Sinofsky in Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, a chronicle of the band’s attempt to mend discord through intensive therapy. One can only imagine what they’re planning for their first big feature. I will tell you more as I learn it.