Slipknot's Shawn 'Clown' Crahan wants a biopic to be made about the band, and he already has plenty of ideas on how it should be made.
The founding percussionist's main requirements for the project, however, is that it's not made by a Hollywood studio, and that the Iowan metal heavyweights take control of pretty much the entire thing. He also shares how he'd like it to be in the form of a mini series, so that each band member's own story has time to be explored.
When asked by NME in an interview over the possibility of a future official Slipknot biopic, the musician - who has directed a number of the band's music videos and three of their documentaries - says: “It wasn’t that long ago that I was very frustrated with this sort of idea, because the business, if you will, was pressuring us for something like that.”
Of wanting creative control over the potential film, he continues, "I could never get anybody to create us, so I’m kind of holding that to the film. I’ve had so many ideas brought to me, and there’s so many people who are frustrated with me about it. They’ve actually told me, 'Maybe it’d be better if you’re not involved.' And I’m just like, 'Yeah, we’ll see how that works for you.'
"Because if I’m not involved, that means I’m not involved" he continues. "That means, 'Good luck with whatever the fuck you’re trying to do, because I’m not going to approve a word of it.' . . . It’s like, 'You never played with us in the band, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! You’re just impressed that some putz director hit a mark in some visual way for theatres to sell popcorn. Get the fuck out of here. This is my life.'"
Elsewhere, the musician goes on to reveal some of his ideas, explaining how he'd want all nine members to have shared airtime, in contrast to the hit biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which he believes mostly explored the life of Queen's late frontman, Freddie Mercury.
"There’s a lot of dudes [in Slipknot] that need to be represented equally – not one is greater than the other, and you can’t explain the band without explaining all of them" he says.
"And then there’s our first manager [Sophia John], who passed away – that story would have to be in there – and then there’s a motley crew of about a dozen other motherfuckers. . . . It’s insane. So we’re gonna do it, but we’re gonna do it our way."
Based on his requirement of wanting all members - both present and former - to get their own moment in the spotlight, Crahan puts forward the idea of a “eight-to-15” episode miniseries, similar to HBO's True Detective. “That way,” he continues, “you can go in the past and see [the late] Paul Gray playing a right-handed guitar when he’s left-handed.”
He also explains how he has “some very insane ideas for how to make it work” as long as he’s helped by “some very creative people.”
“I’m not a writer" he continues. "I can only give you the stories. But if I sat down with some really creative [screenwriters], I would be able to tell them all these ideas and we could come up with something that would make people say, ‘Yes, we’ll give you the money to make that".
Although there's been no official announcement of such a project being given the green light as of yet, we'll be ready and waiting with popcorn set for a major Slipknot series binge sesh.
Slipknot's new album, The End So Far, is out now.
