Remember that flick about astral projection, time travel and Rasputin? That’s probably because it hasn’t been made yet. However, if Mastodon have their way, a film version of their epic concept album Crack the Skye could be headed to a movie screen near you. Drummer Brann Dailor tells Billboard that three directors have expressed interest in turning the 50-minute album into a film, and that the band and one of the directors have written a screenplay.
The only barrier is a financial one. “It all comes down to money,” Dailor says. “We don’t want to half-ass it; we want to make it real and…awesome. But we’re in a time period where labels are doing significantly less, money-wise, or trying to cut back, and making movies isn’t exactly cutting corners. It’s hard for an A&R guy to go to whoever writes the checks and be like, ‘Yeah, this band that sells 150,000 records wants to make a million-dollar movie…’ But we’re not ruling it out yet.”
If Crack the Skye makes it to a multiplex near you, Mastodon will become one in a not extremely long line of metal bands to translate their vision to film. While movies featuring the likes of Anvil (Anvil! The Story of Anvil) and Iron Maiden (Iron Maiden: Flight 666) are playing in theaters now, and Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster introduced many non-metalheads to the band, those are documentaries. This Is Spinal Tap is one of the best metal movies ever, but it’s a mockumentary. 1981’s animated Heavy Metal is a perfect stoner movie that’s held up well enough to be parodied by South Park, but the soundtrack features Devo, Sammy Hagar, and Journey alongside Black Sabbath… not all that metal.
Read on for more more metal/film crossovers and videos after the jump.
There have been a handful of metal-related horror movies. Dokken wrote the theme song to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Freddy Kreuger appeared in the video for said song. Dee Snider wrote a horror movie called Strangeland, but the only thing strange was how horrible it was. And who can forget Ozzy’s appearance in Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky? (Answer: pretty much everyone).
In fact, to parallel Mastodon’s potential journey to the big screen, we might have to abandon metal entirely and look back at other concept albums that have blossomed into movies. Pink Floyd’s The Wall became a great movie back in 1982, and a few years before that, The Who’s Quadrophenia came to life. Here’s hoping that Crack the Skye: the Movie, becomes a reality.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil Trailer:
Iron Maiden: Flight 666 Trailer:
This Is Spinal Tap “These Go to Eleven”:
Sammy Hagar – “Heavy Metal”, from Heavy Metal:
Ozzy Osbourne in Little Nicky:
