Universal Lands ’80s-Focused Bon Jovi Biopic

It’s time to douse your head with an entire can of hairspray and squeeze into that old Spandex, as Universal has secured the rights to a Bon Jovi biopic focusing on the New Jersey band’s rise to fame in the 1980s.

Per Deadline, the movie will be written by Cody Brotter (Killing Satoshi, Drudge) and produced both by Kevin J. Walsh and Gotham Chopra, the latter of whom directed the four-episode Hulu series Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.

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Jon Bongiovi Jr. was just a 21-year-old kid from New Jersey with a dream — and a cousin who ran one of the best studios in New York — when he recorded “Runaway” in 1982 and began getting airplay on local radio. Within a year, he’d signed a record deal with Mercury, adopted a phonetic spelling of his last name and formed an eponymous band with keyboardist David Bryan, guitarist Richie Sambora, bassist Alec John Such and drummer Tico Torres.

The platonic ideal of an arena rock band for many radio-loving listeners, Bon Jovi eventually exploded in 1986 with its third album, Slippery When Wet, which has been certified U.S. shipments of 15 million copies, per the Recording Industry Association of America.

The group has long since faded from the pop charts but was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 and remained a reliable live draw until Bon Jovi required vocal cord surgery in 2022. That turn of events was chronicled in Thank You, Goodnight; Bon Jovi has since been onstage just a handful of occasions, and only in front of private audiences.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.