Carrie Brownstein is paying tribute to her fellow rock goddesses. The Sleater-Kinney musician and “Portlandia” alumna is set to write and direct a biopic about Heart for Amazon Studios. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news.
Led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart launched to fame in the ’70s. The Seattle band has sold over 35 million records worldwide, with hits including “Crazy Hits,” “Magic Man,” and “Barracuda.”
Brownstein has played and released music as a member of Excuse 17, Sleater-Kinney, and Wild Flag, and made a major mark in the riot grrrl movement. She came to prominence in the film and TV world when she co-created, starred in, exec produced, wrote for, and directed “Portlandia,” which ran for eight seasons on IFC. “Carol,” “Transparent,” and “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” are among her other acting credits. Her directing credits include “Search Party,” “Mrs. Fletcher,” and “Shrill.” She’s teaming up with “The High Note” star Dakota Johnson and “I Am Not Okay With This” co-creator Christy Hall for “Rodeo Queens,” a mockumentary-style series about Rodeo Queen hopefuls that’s in development at Amazon Studios.
Reflecting on riot grrrl’s contemporary relevance in 2018, Brownstein told NPR, “It was a movement that really aimed to center women’s experiences in a very unapologetic way and to bring up the subject of discrimination and exploitation where women had often been the object, especially in the context of rock music,” she explained. “This sort of put women as the unabashed narrator, the unabashed protagonist of their own story, and actually had a very outsized influence considering how peripheral it was in terms of mainstream music. And there were riot grrrl meetings, women-only meetings — people talking about experiences of sexism, sexual harassment, a lot of analogies to what is going on today. Of course, riot grrrl was a successor of earlier modes of organizing, and definitely instilled in me a boldness that I think I has served me well in my life.”
