Oh, does your musical biography picture show the musician displaying early talent as an irascible child? Bully for you, but the Little Richard biopic will still have it beaten, because it’s going to feature a 14-year-old Richard “War Hawk” Penniman opening for Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a turban before going full drag as “Princess LaVonne.” Lest you think your Jerry Lee Lewis script can still compete, good luck sourcing a story about a mummified baby that some insane taxidermist jackaloped into “The Devil’s Child:”
Then you could play in the fact that his dad was a church deacon who forbade R&B as “devil music” in their religious family despite owning nightclubs and producing his own moonshine. There’s your tension. Would this script include a solid middle finger to Pat Boone? Oh, you know it would.
Also, there’s the ineluctable fact that Little Richard’s music is immensely better than damn near anything before or since, so–wait, should I be writing this screenplay? I don’t even prefer biopics, despite my love for Walk the Line but dang, maybe I’ll go hammer out The Devil Child and if it sells, just give all the money to Little Richard to spend on grand exhibitions of talent. Ooh ooh or we could start a musical scholarship fund with it. Yeah, this works. Little Richard biopic: somebody make it happen.