SCORPIONS schedules biopic 'Wind Of Change' for a 2025 release
21-06-2024
According to Deadline, a SCORPIONS biopic, “Wind Of Change”, is currently being developed and produced by ESX Entertainment, the company founded by actor, producer and former race car driver Ali Afshar.
ESX Entertainment is a a prolific indie film and TV production company that made its name in recent years pumping Yuletide content to streamers amid the pandemic.
“Wind Of Change” will tell the story of “three unlikely friends whose passion for rock ‘n’ roll fueled their rise from the ashes of post-World War II Germany to the global stardom in the 1980s as the multi-platinum rock band SCORPIONS,” according to Deadline. French-born filmmaker Alex Ranarivelo (“American Wrestler: The Wizard”) will direct.
Afshar says: “The SCORPIONS‘ music has penetrated our culture in a big way. There is an evocative quality to their sound that is unmatched in the genre, which is one of the reasons hits like ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’ and ‘Still Loving You’ continue to get so much airplay and fill movie soundtracks, and their music continues to connect with a new generation of fans across the globe.
“When my family fled Iran and came to the United States, the SCORPIONS‘ music changed my life — if not saved it,” he continued. “I’m hoping that by telling the SCORPIONS‘ story, we can bring some of that same inspiration to the world.”
“Wind Of Change” is being produced by ESX Entertainment‘s Christina Moore and Daniel Aspromonte (“Bennett’s War”, “American Fighter”). The film is tentatively due in 2025 to coincide with the SCORPIONS‘ 60th-anniversary celebrations.
SCORPIONS wrote their classic ballad “Wind Of Change” after performing at 1989’s Moscow Music Peace Festival in Moscow, where they shared the stage with other hard rock acts like BON JOVI and MÖTLEY CRÜE. The song was inspired by the sight of thousands of Russians cheering them on in 1988 — when they became the first hard rock band to play in Russia — and in 1989, at the aforementioned festival, even though they were a German band.
When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, “Wind Of Change” accompanied the moving scenes of East Germans passing through the Brandenburg Gate and entering the West for the first time.
In May 2020, a theory that “Wind Of Change” was actually penned by the CIA as a piece of late Cold War propaganda was raised in an eight-part podcast series, also called “Wind Of Change”, which premiered on Spotify. The podcast was hosted by New Yorker journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, who said he launched the investigation after hearing a second-hand story from a friend who used to work for the CIA — that “Wind Of Change” was actually written by the CIA to encourage change throughout the Soviet Union.
SCORPIONS‘ only continuous member has been guitarist Rudolf Schenker, although singer Klaus Meine has appeared on all of the band’s studio albums, while guitarist Matthias Jabs has been a consistent member since 1978, and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee have been in the band since 2003 and 2016, respectively.
SCORPIONS‘ latest album, “Rock Believer”, was released in February 2022. The album was recorded primarily at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany and was mixed at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany with engineer Michael Ilbert, who has earned multiple Grammy nominations for his mix work with producer Max Martin on albums by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.
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