Update: The film will now hit theaters internationally on April 10th and April 24th in LA, NY and Seattle for an awards-qualifying run, Billboard reports.
It will soon be 21 years since the death of Kurt Cobain and since then we’ve seen a few documentaries on the legendary artist, but the definitive one looks to be arriving shortly. Premiering at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to major acclaim, The Kid Stays in the Picture director Brett Morgen‘s Cobain: Montage of Heck uses previously unreleased archive footage and audio to create a comprehensive portrait of the conflicted musician, and today the first trailer has landed.
“Roughly 85% of the material that audiences will see in Montage of Heck has never been seen or rarely seen, “Morgen tells Yahoo, who premiered the trailer. “This includes several audio cues, portions of a recorded autobiography, a Cobain cover of The Beatles’ And I Love Her, extensive home movies of Kurt’s childhood and never before seen interviews with Kurt’s father, mother, and sister. The film also features never before seen footage of Kurt at home with Courtney [Love] and Frances [Cobain].”
Set to hit U.K. theaters next month and HBO in May, check out the trailer and a pair of posters below. We’re still awaiting word on the release of the soundtrack, which will feature a 12-minute unheard track from Cobain.
Update: See the U.S. trailer below.
Experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the first fully authorized portrait of the famed rock music icon. Director Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain’s personal archive of art, music, and never-before-seen home movies with animation and revelatory interviews with his family and closest confidants. Following Kurt from his earliest years in Aberdeen, Washington, through the height of his fame, a visceral and detailed cinematic insight of an artist at odds with his surroundings emerges.
While Cobain craved the spotlight even as he rejected the trappings of fame, his epic arc depicts a man who stayed true to his earliest punk rock convictions, always identifying with the “outsider” and ensuring the music came first.
Fans and those of the Nirvana generation will learn things about Cobain they never knew while those who have recently discovered the man and his music will know what makes him the lasting icon that he is.
Cobain: Montage Of Heck arrives on HBO on May 4th.