It Sure Sounds Like We’re Getting a U2 Origin Series at Netflix

"Bohemian Rhapsody" writer Anthony McCarten is also involved

Bono, 1984
If you liked "Young Rock," maybe you'll also enjoy "Young U2"?
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It might be hard to remember at this point, but there was a time when U2 was known more making fantastic records than for adding its music into your iTunes library without advance notice or its frontman’s occasional forays into poetry. And if you’ve ever wanted to relive that period in the band’s career, doing so might soon be as easy as calling up your Netflix queue.

At The Hollywood Reporter, Lesley Goldberg and Borys Kit recently broke the news that JJ Abrams is working on a series about the band, to be written by Anthony McCarten. McCarten also wrote the screenplay for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and he’s also writing a biopic based on the life of Whitney Houston, as as well as the book for a Neil Diamond musical.

The article has few other details about the series, save that U2 “is expected to be involved and sanction the project.” If nothing else, that suggests a less tumultuous lead-up to the show than, say, FX’s upcoming Sex Pistols series, which John Lydon has extensively criticized.

Much has been written about the band’s early years and their search for a record deal, and this seems like a likely point of focus for a series — “up and coming band tries to make it big” being a more overtly appealing pitch than, say, “rock stars deconstruct their sound for a satirical commentary on materialism.” But if Abrams and McCarten are instead readying the epic look inside the making of Zooropa we didn’t know we needed, the stunt casting of Brian Eno and Johnny Cash is going to be amazing.

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