In 2006, Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil announced that Christopher Walken had signed on to appear in Larry Charles’s “The Dirt” as rock legend Ozzy Osbourne (via Uncut). Even then, Neil understood how incredible the casting was, saying, “How funny is that going to be?!” To make it even worse that audiences never got to see Walken in the role, the book version of “The Dirt” features Osbourne touring with the band, snorting a line of ants, and taking LSD daily along the way. Charles planned for “The Dirt” to have an NC-17 rating, so Walken would have had the opportunity to go all-out in the role.
Unfortunately, Charles thinks the NC-17 rating was the downfall of the biopic. In 2008, a few years after the movie’s initial announcement, the director said there was no way he could remain faithful to the story without keeping it unrated. “Mötley Crüe is a crappy band but [Neil Strauss] wrote a really epic book about them. It’s really fascinating. What’s good about it is how hardcore it is. They killed people, they’ve hurt people, they’ve crippled people, they’ve done all kinds of crazy things. You’d have to show that for real and I think there was a little bit of reticence about doing that ultimately” (via /Film).
He continued by saying he would only make the film if he could make it his way. If not, the studio would have to find someone else to lead the project. In 2019, “The Dirt” finally made its film debut, with Jeff Tremaine (“Jackass”) directing the movie for Netflix. Tony Cavalero (“The Righteous Gemstones”) portrayed Osbourne, but the movie received negative reviews, leaving fans wondering what Charles and Walken could’ve made of the film.
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