Ozzy Osbourne's final wish for biopic on his life that won't be fulfilled

Metro

6 days ago

Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne lived a life ripe for a movie adaptation – with one officially in the works since 2021.
At the late 76-year-old's final-ever gig on July 5 in his hometown of Birmingham, at Villa Park, his son Jack even had fresh updates on the project promising 'we have a lot of good momentum on the Ozzy biopic'.
The rocker's boy revealed there was a director attached, and that the script was completed for the Sony-produced film.
'It is about to go through a script rewrite. It's going to be raw. We are not pulling any punches, we are really laying it all out,' he added to The Sun.
An unsuspecting comment that Ozzy himself made on the film has now come to pass with his death on July 22.
Discussing the developing project with wife of over four decades Sharon on the Osbournes podcast in 2024, she revealed: 'Movies take forever to make. Forever!'
Ozzy's quip in response revealed his hope for the biopic as he commented: 'By the time they finish this film, I'll be dead… I wanna be alive to f***ing see it!'
Sadly, that won't be the case for the musician, aka the Prince of Darkness, after a tough few years with his health following a Parkinson's diagnosis after a string of complications due to a fall in 2019.
During the same chat, Sharon, 72, shared her hopes for the actress that could play her, suggesting Oppenheimer and We Live in Time star Florence Pugh or 'the little girl from Game Of Thrones' – a likely reference to Bella Ramsey, who portrayed Lyanna Mormont on the show and before starring as Ellie in The Last Of Us.
But Ozzy himself had an even more epic answer as to who could take on his rollercoaster of a life and career.
In 2010, before the Ozzy biopic was in development, The Nerdist podcast host Chris Hardwick asked him who he would pick to play him in a movie about his life.
Without missing a beat, the rocker confidently revealed his pick, simply answering: 'Denzel Washington.'
The two-time Oscar winner, who has a career total of 10 Academy Award nominations so far, has previously featured in films as varied as Taining Day, Malcolm X and The Tragedy of Macbeth.
In the wake of his death, fans have been sharing Ozzy's witty reaction as they remember him fondly.
'Your turn Denzel – this is what Ozzy Osbourne would've wanted,' posted @screenthrill on Instagram.
'Denzel would nail the role,' responded @yar_zednanref, while Katie added: 'Hopefully someone who is probably working on the Ozzy biopic just needs to make this happen (or maybe put Denzel in a post credit scene where he's singing Crazy Train or War Pigs in costume).'
In 2019, Sharon revealed she'd been working on developing a biopic about her early days and relationship with her iconic husband after she learned another rival script had been doing the rounds in Hollywood.
She dismissed it as 'a load of crap', complaining it 'didn't make sense' and 'didn't have a heart'.
'I don't want to do another rock and roll, sex, drugs and money movie about a musician. That's not what I'm doing,' she told Variety. 'There hasn't been a movie about a woman that actually works on the management side – that's a true story – and somebody that succeeds through the struggle and you come out the other side.'
Sharon said the film would cover 'everything before we get married', which they did in 1982, therefore omitting a lot of Ozzy's hellraising.
At that stage she'd approached 28 Years Later filmmaker Danny Boyle to direct already and said she would want 'a complete unknown for Ozzy' as it's him 'at a very young age'.
The following year, the couple teased more about the movie in an interview with Rolling Stone and a few changes that had been made.
'From what I understand, it's about Sharon and I and our relationship. It's how we met, fell in love, and how we married. She's my other half. She grew up a lot with me, and I grew up a lot with her,' Ozzy explained.
'I hope it will be a story that everybody can relate to,' Sharon added. 'You don't have to be a fan of the music, because it's a story about a survivor. No matter what life throws at you, you pick yourself up and you start again. It's just an amazing story of overcoming everything that's thrown at you in your life.'
Son Jack confirmed they'd asked the writer to focus on 1979 to 1996, bringing the timeline forward compared to Sharon's initial idea.
Suitably, his mum then insisted that the biopic would be 'a lot more real' than the Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody because 'we don't want it to be squeaky, shiny clean and all of that'.
'We're not making it for kids. It's an adult movie for adults.'
In October 2021, the official announcement then came via Variety, confirming the producers and studios involved as Polygram Entertainment, Sony Pictures and Osbourne Media – which is Sharon and two of the couple's children, Jack and daughter Aimée .
The scriptwriter was revealed to be Oscar-nominated Billy Elliot and Rocketman scribe Lee Hall and the focus of the film the decades-long bond between the iconic rock star and his manager wife, which exploded onto the pop culture scene in the 2000s thanks to their TV reality show The Osbournes.
'Our relationship at times was often wild, insane and dangerous but it was our undying love that kept us together,' shared Sharon. 'We're thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram to bring our story to the screen.' More Trending
The update also confirmed that the biopic would feature music from both Black Sabbath and Ozzy's solo career.
Jack Osbourne, 39, also shared his hopes for the earliest release possible date for the biopic at his dad's last show, as he confirmed the director they'd landed was 'absolutely phenomenal' and a 'die-hard fan' of his influential father.
In terms of a predicted release, he added to The Sun: 'If the evil overlords of ­Hollywood give us the green light, we could be filming in the spring, so maybe it will be out by the summer of 2027.'
It remains to be seen whether Ozzy's death could affect these plans.
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