Heart's Ann Wilson revealed that the first biopic on the band is currently in the works. While talking to Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM Volume, she revealed that the still-unnamed project on her and sister Nancy Wilson's life and career, is being written and directed by fellow Seattleite, actress/musician Carrie Brownstein — best known from Sleater-Kinney and co-star of IFC’s Portlandia. Wilson shed some light on the film's pre-production, explaining, “A few actresses have come forward, but no one that's right. Anne Hathaway came forward, but I don't think she's exactly right for it. I just don't have any idea. I'm too close to it. But it's known that the role of Nancy and the role of me is being cast. . . I'm just as excited about finding out as you are.”
Wilson went on to say that the film begins with the sisters' childhood and wraps in the 1990's: “It's still being written right now. I saw the first draft of (Brownstein’s) script, and it's really cool (and) definitely coming along (but I) still in development right now because of COVID slowed everything down.”
She spoke about how Heart now approaches some of their monster '80s hits — which at times defied he and sister Nancy's more rocking stylistic choices: “They can be made cool, but you have to stay true to what made people like them back in the '80s. Like 'Never,' which has absolutely nothing to it at all, except the word 'Never'! You have to figure out a way to frame this word 'never' and make it bounce along and be compelling. It's kind of a tightrope to walk, because you don't want to take the song 'Never' and turn it into reggae or something like that. Of course, the whole point of the ‘80s was to be not authentic, was to be a sort of light and poppy, with all that weird makeup and strange hair and all that. I mean, it was all about being theatrical and unreal.”
When asked about a return to the studio for Heart's next album, Wilson said, “There's all kinds of writing going on. And who knows where they're going to end up? We don't write and earmark a song, really; we just write songs. If the song really tells us that belongs with a certain entity, then that's where it goes.”
We asked Ann Wilson what stands out about the group's '80s hitmaking heyday: “Oh, well having Number One records and that whole ride is very thrilling, y'know? To have a bunch of Number Ones and make a bunch of money and to play big huge places and fly around in business jets and all that stuff.”
For Ann Wilson, going through the motions with Heart as an “oldies” act was simply never an option: “Y'know, Heart was started back in the '70s in an atmosphere of super high ideals, and about it being real and about it being, y'know, authentic. So, I really don't want to see it get to a point of being numb or automatic, or just a cash cow, y'know? That's just immoral to me.”
