EXCLUSIVE: Nick Jonas is near closed on a deal to star as KISS lead singer Paul Stanley in Shout It Out Loud, the McG-directed film about the forma
EXCLUSIVE: Nick Jonas is near closed on a deal to star as KISS lead singer Paul Stanley in Shout It Out Loud, the McG-directed film about the formation of the venerable difficult rock band in the 1970s. The film will go into production at the end of the year or in early 2026, with STX fully financing. The most recent draft is by Darren Lemke.
I’m told that Jonas will do his own singing, and he’ll need time to train to replicate the jet-engine vocals of Stanley. Besides headlining in the sibling band The Jonas Brothers, Jonas has also proven his chops onscreen. His rise began with the 2016 toxic masculinity hazing drama Goat. He shone in the MMA series Kingdom, as a newborn gay man who grows up in a family of fighters and has to hide his sexuality from a domineering father.
Jonas grew up on the Broadway stage in numerous musicals, including starring turns in Les Miserables, Hairspray and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and he played singer Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys Live. His screen credits also include Jumanji and The Good Half, and he will co-star opposite Paul Rudd in the John Carney-directed Power Ballad for Lionsgate.
Shout it Out Loud focuses on the formation of the ‘70s glitter rock band. Stanley hardly fit the persona of a sex symbol front man as he was growing up. “I was deaf in one ear and had a slight deformity that made me look different,” Stanley once said. “I was this short, fat kid, and music became my salvation, a place to hide and dream. And when I played music, there were always girls around.”
McG is zeroing in on a star to play Gene Simmons, the fire-breathing, blood-dripping, growly voiced bass player who formed the band with Stanley. His compulsion to take a rock and roll path also had a lot to do with girls.
(L-R) Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS in 2019
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Simmons was a Hasidic Orthodox Jew from Israel who found a modern faith one fateful day while exiting the yeshiva. “I remember walking out onto the street, seeing this Spanish girl jumping rope across the street, and staring at her long black hair slapping against this great butt,” he once said. “It occurred to me this was better than religion. How could I get near that?”
They teamed with lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, and then made themselves stand out by playing in face makeup with each adopting different personalities. Their enduring success was fueled by a steady array of power rock anthems including “Rock and Roll All Nite.” They beat the odds to become one of the most commercially successful bands in rock history. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
The project has been percolating for years, developed by Mark Canton, Simmons, Stanley and Doc McGhee alongside Jody Gerson for Universal Music Publishing Group and Polygram Entertainment, and Bruce Resnikoff of Universal Music Group/Ume, who control and rep the band’s song publishing and recorded music rights globally, and Polygram’s David Blackman. Canton, Simmons, Stanley, McGhee, Gerson and Blackman will be producers or executive producers, joined by Leigh Ann Burton. Also producing are McG and his Wonderland producing partner Mary Viola, as well as David Hopwood, Courtney Solomon and Dorothy Canton, and Swedish-based Pophouse, which acquired global rights to the KISS brand. Christa Campbell and Annie Herndon are overseeing for STX.
McG and KISS
Getty Images; Everett Collection
McG most recently wrapped Way of the Warrior Kid, an adaptation of the Jocko Willink novel that stars Chris Pratt and Linda Cardellini for Apple TV+.
Jonas is repped by UTA and Schreck Rose.
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