A biopic focusing on German singer Nico is in the works, Variety reports. The late singer was a 1960s icon who played with The Velvet Underground and became a muse of Andy Warhol.
Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Cosmonauta”) is helming the project, titled “Nico, 1988,” which will kick off its shoot next month in Italy. Denmark’s Trine Dyrholm will take on the lead role. The actress won this year’s Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress for her performance in “The Commune.” The rest of the international cast includes Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca (“4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 days”); Britain’s Karina Fernandez (“Happy Go Lucky”); Belgium’s Fabrizio Rongione; France’s Sandor Funteck (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”); and British stage actor Calvin Demba making his film debut.
“Most people think, as Andy Warhol once said, that after her experience with Velvet Underground and the Factory — and after having had sex with most of the rock stars of those years — Nico simply ‘became a fat junkie’ and disappeared,” said Nicchiarelli in a statement, Variety reported. “But is this how her life really went?”
As Variety writes, “Nicchiarelli will seek to shed light on what actually happened once the glamorous times were over for this enigmatic figure, whose career was launched by her appearance in Federico Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita.’ The biopic will start in 1987 with Nico, aged 48, strung out on heroin but going on tour in Europe as a soloist with a new manager and getting off drugs as the tour progresses. She is with her son Ari, who she claimed was conceived with Alain Delon, though Delon denied paternity. Nico died in 1988 while on vacation with Ari on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza.”
Nicchiarelli also wrote the screenplay, which draws from interviews with Ari and Nico’s manager, Alan Wise.
“The entire film is constructed following the inspiration of Nico’s music: her performances and the lyrics of her songs,” Nicchiarelli said. “It will tell us more than any other dialogue or situation in the film.”
This won’t be the first female-directed film focused on Nico. Susan Ofteringer directed the 1996 documentary “Nico-Icon.” Nicchiarelli’s will be the first narrative feature to tackle the legendary woman.
