CBGB Film To Chronicle Life Of Hilly Krystal, New York Punk Scene

CBGB, the famous New York City music venue, and its founder Hilly Kristal will be the subjects of a new biopic, according to Bilboard.com.

Brad Rosenberger, Randall Miller, Jody Savin and Kristal's daughter, Lisa Kristal Burgman, are producing the film, tentatively titled "CBGB", that they hope will capture the Bowery nightclub in its heyday, from 1974-1976, when it was home to New York's burgeoning punk rock scene and performers Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones, The Talking Heads and Television.

Mr. Kristal, who The New York Times dubbed "a rock midwife", died in 2007 of lung cancer. He started CBGB in 1973, with the intention of opening a club that would feature his favorite types of music--blues, country and bluegrass--but instead found himself hosting a new, underground sound.

“There was no real venue in 1973 for people like us,” Patti Smith told the Times after Kristal's death. “We didn’t fit into the cabarets or the folk clubs. Hilly wanted the people that nobody else wanted. He wanted us.”

Savin, who is directing the film, told Bilboard, "It was an old-fashioned salon in an awful part of New York where people could fail while they worked to find their voice. He provided a voice to the disenfranchised. It's a heroic and flawed story."

CBGB closed in 2006 after a dispute with the landlord.

The producers are in the process of researching the script, securing music rights and interviewing musicians who used to perform at CBGB. They plan to start filming later this year.

Until then, here's some CBGB Blondie: