Celebrity | Bon Jovi An '80s Hair-Band Favorite Is Getting the Biopic Treatment Universal wins rights to dramatize Bon Jovi's rise and legacy, with a screenplay by Cody Brotter By Jenn Gidman withNewser.AI Posted Mar 11, 2026 6:36 AM CDT Copied In this Oct. 19, 2016, file photo, members of Bon Jovi are seen. In front row, from left: Tico Torres, Jon Bon Jovi, and David Bryan. In back row, from left: Phil X and Hugh McDonald. (Photo by Drew Gurian/Invision/AP, file) See 1 more photo Bon Jovi is headed for the multiplex. Universal has snagged the rights to a feature film about the New Jersey rock band, winning a bidding war to back the project that will chronicle the group behind "Livin' on a Prayer" and other '80s arena staples, reports Variety. Cody Brotter, writer of the upcoming crypto thriller Killing Satoshi, is on script duty; no director or cast is attached yet. Deadline reports that the studio will have access to the band's entire music catalog, as well as input from frontman Jon Bon Jovi himself. That outlet notes that the film will center on the band established in 1983 and later inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with a focus on its "formative years and the stepping stones to get to where the band's rock anthems filled stadiums all over the world." Founding members Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres are still in the lineup, while guitarist Richie Sambora exited in 2013; original bassist Alec John Such took his leave in 1994 and died in 2022. Kevin J. Walsh and Gotham Chopra will produce the biopic, with Universal's Jacqueline Garell supervising the project—a bet on a genre that's seen blockbuster hits like Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis, as well as notable misses. Rolling Stone notes that Bon Jovi's last album was Forever, released in 2024. The band is hitting the road this summer for a limited concert run in New York City and the UK, its first time performing in four years. Read These Next Warning to Trump on Iran: Don't 'get eliminated yourself.' The most popular American doesn't live in the US. Iran's new supreme leader is said to already have war wounds. We could be getting a 'Super El Niño.' See 1 more photo Report an error