It’s easy to hate Courtney Love, or to at least be disgusted by her. But I’ll tell you one thing – she’s treated Kurt Cobain’s legacy and music like something that should only be given out in small amounts, which I think has been the right idea. We don’t have Come As You Are playing in Target commercials or Smells Like Teen Spirit scoring car chases, and while I think that has on some level that has kept Nirvana from the spotlight and led to stupid people thinking they’re overrated, it has also kept the man and the band from becoming a Tupac-style joke.
Now Love seems to be ready to bring us a little more Kurt – she’s optioned the very, very excellent Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, written by Charles Cross (truly a fantastic book – buy it here from CHUD), and now the rumor is that she wants Ewan McGregor to play her dead husband.
McGregor’s so good for the role that is almost feels like fantasy casting. He has the look. We know he’s convincing as a rock star, thanks to the criminally underloved Velvet Goldmine. And we know he’s a damn fine actor. Oh, and we know that his post-Star Wars career needs the boost of a terrific, signature leading role.
All in all, this is shaping up to be a project I’m excited about. If done right – with honesty and respect – Heavier Than Heaven could be a meditation on the old adage, ‘Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it.’ That, in the end, is the tragedy of Kurt Cobain’s life – he got what he wanted and then found out it wasn’t what he wanted after all.