Alan Rickman will always be Professor Severus Snape to us, but he's about to take on the guise of another, more modern legend. You might not have heard of Hilly Kristal, but surely you have heard of the club he started and owned until it closed in 2006, CBGB.
The legendary East Village institution kick started punk rock and became a second home to local artists like Patti Smith, Television, Suicide, the Ramones, and Blondie; later years gave rise to hardcore acts like Bad Brains and, yes, the Beastie Boys. Kristal had plans to take his club to Vegas but died in 2007.
Rickman's casting news comes hot on the heels of an announcement that the new owners of CBGB are kicking off a summer music festival and are even looking for a new location. Lisa Kristal Burgman, Hilly Kristal's daughter and controller of his estate, has given her blessing to both the music festival and the movie.
She's co-producing the film, which will be directed by Randall Miller; Miller and co-writer Jody Savin worked with Rickman on "Bottle Shock," a movie about the cutthroat world of wine making.
The movie, which was first announced last May, will take place during some of the most punk rock years of the club, 1974 to 1976. Burgman's participation means that the filmmakers have an in with the famous musicians who once graced the doorstep of 315 Bowery, so the team has been able to interview them for juicy details about that rockin' time.
The producers also hope that Krystal's close relationship with the musicians who performed at CBGB will make it easier to get rights to some of the music.
