New Semi-Fictional Jimi Hendrix Movie: ‘Slide’ [Update]

Remember that weird John Lennon and Paul McCartney fantasy reunion film, Two of Us, that aired on VH1 years ago? I don’t think there’s a name for this genre (it’s a kind of “Choose Your Own Adventure” exercise for classic rock buffs). Either way, now a couple Jimi Hendrix daydreamers are turning their fantasies into a feature film.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that R.H. Greene, author of a reimagined version of the Dracula story in the form of a memoir, will write and direct Slide, a semi-fictional film about Jimi Hendrix’s rumored “lost weekend.” So what’s Greene’s take on this mystery escapade?

**Update: THR is claiming that, in the film, a drug-addled Hendrix is “inadvertently” kidnapped by mobsters, but — get this — “along the way, Hendrix ends up teaching one of the gangsters about honesty, and Hendrix learns to clean up his act.”

As it turns out, “nothing like that is in the script, and nothing like that will be in the movie,” Greene confirmed to TwentyFourBit, adding, “That’s just way too ‘bad TV sitcom’ for me.” Phew.

Greene also takes issue with those describing Hendrix’s legendary “lost weekend” as fiction, saying “there’s strong circumstantial evidence [the kidnapping] occurred.” Here’s what Greene told us, exclusively:

The main thing I hope people will understand is that although they may not have heard about this incident, it has been written of and spoken about for many, many years, including by Jimi himself if some of his closest associates can be believed. While we have to be speculative because no definitive version of the event exists, this takes it out of the realm of fiction for me. It’s part of Jimi’s story, and I think it offers an opportunity to show him fully but from a unique angle. That was my aim in writing it, and that’s going to be my aim in making it.

Okay, now that the redemptive bit is moot and the kidnapping story sounds a lot less far-fetched, perhaps we have a cool Hendrix movie to look forward to after all.