KISS fans have expressed their disappointment over the ‘awful’ and ‘ridiculous’ casting of Nick Jonas as frontman Paul Stanley in an upcoming biopic.
The Jonas Brothers singer, 32, is reportedly set to star as the legendary musician, 73, in Shout It Out Loud, a biopic charting the 70s band’s rise to fame.
KISS – made up of Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss – formed in 1973 and went on to become one of the most influential and biggest-selling rock bands of all time.
The film will be directed by McG, famed for his work on Charlie’s Angels and Transformers.
But fans aren’t happy Jonas will be playing the Starchild, taking to social media to air their frustrations and vow to ‘never see the film.’
‘This casting just assures I will never watch this,’ one person commented on a Reddit post about the casting news, while another simply added, ‘Oh f**k no’ and a third wrote, ‘Absolutely not, that’s awful.’
Others noted the band had enjoyed its fair share of controversy over the years. Several of its members openly admitted they had taken advantage of their star status to sleep with up to 5,000 women, while the band also caught flak for marketing a KISS-themed coffin.
‘Absoultely (sic) ridiculous casting,’ a commenter declared. ‘But then we are talking about the band who replaced their lead guitarist with a roadie.’
Elsewhere, commenters complained that too many music biopics had been released lately, with movies about the lives of Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, and Amy Winehouse all released in the last two years.
‘I’m sure a lot of people must love them, but I cannot describe how happy I would be if they just stopped making most musician biopics,’ one wrote.
Other fans were more supportive, with Iamacannibal commenting: ‘Nick is actually a really good actor. He was in a show called Kingdom a while back that is fantastic and he was great in it.’
‘Oh I can totally see why they picked him he will really pull it off!’ Rap_A_Toni93 posted, with other users drawing similarities between Jonas and Stanley’s appearances.
The Hollywood Reporter reports Jonas is in ‘final talks’ to take on the role of Stanley, while movie bosses are still looking for an actor to play the singer’s bassist bandmate Simmons.
The group is helping to develop the project while Stanley and Simmons are among the producers, along with McG.
Deadline reports Jonas plans to take on singing duties in the film and needs time to train his voice to be able to emulate Stanley’s signature vocals.
Longtime KISS manager Doc McGhee previously revealed the movie would focus on the band’s first four years together after forming in the 1970s.
Speaking to Talking Metal in 2021, he explained: ‘[The script is] completely done … And the script is about the first four years of KISS. Basically, it’s before they were famous – it was up to Cadillac High [KISS’ famous gig in a high school gym in Cadillac, Michigan in 1975] , that kind of thing.
‘And I think it’s a very interesting look at the formation of KISS, the mindset of how that came about, the social pressure that everybody was in in the ’60s and ’70s that brought something like Kiss to the forefront, that it could actually happen.
‘So it’s a very interesting, and I think it’s a well-written movie.’
Stanley has also previously spoken about the movie, telling broadcaster Kylie Olsson in 2021: ‘[The movie is] definitely happening. And that’s gonna be really interesting. The script was really good. And we really waited until we felt comfortable.’
Speaking of actors who could play him in the film, he added: ‘I will tell you this: for casting to be accurate in terms of age, we are looking at actors in their early 20s.
‘Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot of actors in their early 20s. When people get asked these kinds of questions, they’ll say, “Oh, Brad Pitt,” or this one or that one.’
He went on to say that he will be ‘there and watching’ as the casting process continues, so if that remains true, surely Jonas has the stamp of approval from the man himself.
‘But as the casting process goes on, I’ll certainly be there and watching. It’ll be interesting to see how someone else- be it the casting people or the director – how they view who I am and who they see doing that.
‘I think I’ll learn a lot about their perception of me by who they cast.’
The biopic was originally slated for a 2024 release date on Netflix, but so far, a revised release date has not been announced.
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