Oz Producers Prep Dueling Biopics About Late INXS Frontman Michael Hutchence

Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney

Several producers have tried in vain to mount a biopic of INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence since he died in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. Now, two new projects are gearing up. Producers Trevor Ray Field and Suzy Markovski, and screenwriter/executive producer Robert Lewis Galinsky are prepping Two Worlds Colliding, based on the book Just A Man ' The Real Michael Hutchence by the singer's sister Tina and his mother, Patricia Glassop. Field has acquired the film rights to the book and Galinsky tells Deadline the project will go out to potential cast and directors in early 2013. He says the film will not be an exploitative 'tell-all' and is confident he'll get the support of the current members of INXS and its management. Finance, says Galinsky, is being sourced from investors he's dealt with before. Meanwhile, Screen Australia is funding the development of another Hutchence project, Michael, with producer Sue Murray and director Richard Lowenstein, whose 1986 film Dogs In Space starred Hutchence. Murray tells Deadline, 'Our project is in late development, so we are further ahead than Bobby Galinsky's project. Richard's is an original screenplay based on his friendship and work with Michael and INXS, and extensive research and interviews that include talking with Michael's siblings.'

Get Deadline news and alerts FREE to your inbox...