EXCLUSIVE: After supplying the 2023 fall box office with $261 million via his Taylor Swift: Eras Tour concert film, Sam Wrench is now set to direct a redo of the 1980 United Artists feature film The Idolmaker for Amazon MGM Studios. The movie will rep the narrative helming debut for Wrench, the Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning music documentary and live-event filmmaker.
Friday Night Lights Emmy winner Jason Katims is writing the script.
Released in 1980, The Idolmaker was Oscar nominee Taylor Hackford’s first film and earned Ray Sharkey a Golden Globe for Best Actor. The movie was based on the life of rock promoter/producer Bob Marcucci, who discovered, among others, Frankie Avalon and Fabian. It was written by Edward Di Lorenzo and produced by Hawk Koch and Gene Kirkwood; the film counts a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer and also starred Tovah Feldshuh, Peter Gallagher, and Paul Land.
Kirkwood (Rocky, Grammy-winning The Defiant Ones, Get Rich or Die Trying) and Koch (Wayne’s World, Primal Fear) will return to produce the new film, with Bill Gerber (A Star is Born) also producing.
In Katims’ modern-day reimagining, a singularly talented musician and equally gifted “idolmaker” navigate the complications of the music industry and the real world.
Wrench received a 2023 Grammy nom for Billie Eilish Live at O2 in the Best Music Film category. He’s also directed episodes of American Idol and Rhythm + Flow. He is represented by CAA and Yorn Levine.
Katims also created NBC’s Parenthood, which pumped out 103 episodes. He also wrote the Channing Tatum-Rachel McAdams movie The Vow, which grossed nearly $200 million at the global box office in 2012. He is represented by CAA and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
