A surprising posting on Production Weekly has director Francis Lawrence’s biopic of musical group Sublime progressing in active development.
They add that KJ Apa has been mentioned as a possible lead. Who is Apa? He’s a New Zealand-born actor primarily known as Archie in the CW drama “Riverdale.” His film career hasn’t been as successful, but he does look like Sublime lead singer, the late Bradley Nowell.
Apa is also a musician, so that helps. In 2021, he released his debut album, “Clocks”, which was recorded in the folk rock genre. Not totally Sublime’s kind of music, but it’s a start.
Sublime was an American ska punk band from California and they defined the mid ‘90s for a lot of people. Their number one single “What I Got” still gets played on the radio.
Just as their music was gaining notoriety from the American public, their lead singer and guitarist Nowell died of a heroin overdose at the age of 28. Sublime died when Nowell died and that was the end of that.
As mentioned, Francis Lawrence is set to direct this biopic. A competent director who gave us “I Am Legend,” “Constantine,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Red Sparrow.” He’s about to release his fourth ‘Hunger Games’ movie this fall.
His Sublime biopic still doesn’t have a set date for production, but here’s hoping he completed the script before the strike.
