JOURNEY Singer ARNEL PINEDA's Rise From Obscurity To Be Chronicled In New Biopic; Crazy Rich Asians Director JON M. CHU On Board
December 6, 2018, 5 years ago
Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros is re-teaming with its Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu to chronicle the journey of Arnel Pineda, a Filipino singer rescued from obscurity by a YouTube video that led him to become the lead singer of the iconic ’80s arena rock band Journey.
Discovered on YouTube by Journey co-founder Neal Schon, who’d finally found the rare singer able to reliably replicate the soaring vocals of exited original lead singer Steve Perry, Pineda revived Journey and put the band back in stadiums once again. Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen will produce, and the search for a writer is underway.
The studio is negotiating to license the original Journey tunes, most written by Perry and Schon, and Warner Bros has acquired rights to Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey. That was the 2012 documentary that chronicled Pineda’s impossible rise. Chu’s vision is to make an empowering movie that follows the real life rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale of a formerly homeless Filipino singer to overnight rock star.
Below is the trailer for that film. Read more at Deadline.
