Mick Jagger wanted to produce a Casino-style movie based on the music business, ending up with hot new TV series Vinyl.
The show, starring Bobby Cannavale, Olivia Wilde and Ray Romano, debuted on American TV on Sunday (14Feb16), hitting British screens a day later. The much hyped Vinyl is the brain child of Rolling Stones legend Mick, director Martin Scorsese and writers Terence Winter and Rich Cohen.
"It was a movie idea," Mick admitted to America's Esquire magazine. "I went to Marty and said that I'd like to do something that covers the actual inside of the record business, using (his film) Casino as shorthand."
The end result has been a 10-part series, based on '70s New York music exec Richie Finestra (Bobby). The theme of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll features heavily, but Mick insists the story isn't based on his own hedonistic lifestyle.
"Andy (Warhol) liked to commodify himself—that was his goal. Everyone wants to commodify themselves now. But none of the artists (on Vinyl) are like me. None of the executives are like me. It's fictional," he stated.
Working with Martin was a surreal experience for Bobby, especially as Martin like to share career anecdotes while they shot.
"We'd be shooting on Central Park South and looking out the window, and Marty'd go, 'Oh boy, I was just thinking about the time we shot that scene (in Taxi Driver) with Bob (De Niro) where he takes the shot at the guy when he's giving the speech'," the actor recalled.
"Or he would tell me about, like, going with his friends and finding bodies that were just dumped out of cars into that alley from Jersey Street."
The epic first episode, which has a runtime of two hours, was a smash hit with social media users. Twitter went into a frenzy with fans like Green Day star Billie Joe Armstrong praising Bobby for "crushing it" and Chef director Jon Favreau commenting that his TV is "locked and loaded" to record the whole season.
