\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures is tuning up a definitive biopic on the formative years of Bon Jovi, the quartet that emerged from humble New Jersey origins to sell over 130 million albums, and earn their way into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Multiple studios chased the project, and Universal just closed the deal. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe studio that made fact-based music biopics Straight Outta Compton and 8 Mile has invested in a package that will have the participation of leader Jon Bon Jovi<\/a> and access to the band\u2019s music library.<\/p>\n \n\tCody Brotter<\/a> has been set to write the script. The scribe first got notice for his Black List script Drudge, about the emergence of online political journalist Matt Drudge, and he most recently rewrote the crypto thriller Killing Satoshi for Doug Liman, and another music-themed biopic for Mike Judge. His work also includes The Dukes of Oxy for MGM, Ron Ziegler for Amy Pascal and Chasing Phil for Team Downey.<\/p>\n \n\tThe film will be produced by Kevin J. Walsh<\/a> (The Instigators and Manchester By The Sea) and Gotham Chopra<\/a>, whose Religion of Sports produced Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. Chopra directed all four episodes of that 2024 Hulu documentary series on the band, made with full access to the band members, timed with Bon Jovi\u2019s 40th anniversary. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe film\u2019s focus will be the formative years and the stepping stones to get to where the band\u2019s rock anthems filled stadiums all over the world.<\/p>\n \n\tJon Bongiovi was nudged toward music by his Beatles-obsessed mother, but the young man grew so frustrated by his early moments learning guitar in his Perth Amboy home that he tossed the instrument down the basement stairs and broke it. It wasn\u2019t until his early teens, when he watched fellow Jersey artist Bruce Springsteen perform, that the young man saw what his future might be. He became relentless in his work ethic in pursuit of success. He picked back up the guitar, got the broken tuning peg fixed, and learned to play it and write songs. He cut his teeth in a number of local bands, evolving from cover tunes to originals.<\/p>\n \n\tHe took a job as a gofer in his cousin\u2019s Power Station studio in Manhattan, where he swept floors and hung around while groups like Aerosmith recorded their albums. He recorded his first songs there \u2013 among them the future hit Runaway \u2013 with the help of studio musicians. He was roundly rejected by all the labels whose busy execs were too focused on sure things to make time for a young artist finding his way. The singer had the idea to focus on the DJs at rock stations, who loved music and had nothing but time on their hands. A re-recorded Runaway found footing at WAPP, and soon the song was being played by rock stations all over New York. \u00a0<\/p>\n