Don’t stop believin’.
Journey lead singer Arnel Pineda reacted yesterday to Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu’s plan to direct a movie based on his life.
Pineda was responding to an article that appeared on entertainment news website Deadline on Dec. 5 which reported that Chu and Warner Bros plan to produce a biopic about the formerly homeless Filipino singer who became a rock star overnight.
“If this article is even just half-true … I’m quite honored,” Pineda said on his Instagram post with a screenshot of the article. He said that it should be an exciting movie to do.
He shared that he was just waiting for Chu or Warner Bros to contact him.
“[You] need to reach out to me #MrJonMChu @wbpictures coz I’m right here waiting,” he said.
Pineda began his career singing at a pizza parlor in Manila as a teen and suffered from drug addiction while he was still a struggling singer.
Journey guitarist Neal Schon found Pineda on YouTube after seeing him cover American songs which included the band’s hit Don’t Stop Believin’.
Pineda was then hired as the band’s new lead singer in 2008 after Schon found that he had a strikingly similar sound to Steve Perry, the band’s former frontman.
Perry officially exited the band in 1998 due to a hip injury which prevented him from touring.
When Pineda became part of the band — which also includes Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Smith — the group sold tickets as much as it did in their glory days in the 1980s.
Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians was one of this year’s highest-grossing films and earned more than $35million at the United States box office in its first five days.
The director said the movie set him on a journey to create more inspirational stories from around the world, including Pineda’s.
“This story, in particular, has been on my mind since I first read about it years ago. A true fairy tale and [a] triumph of the human spirit,” Chu told Deadline.
He added: “An unlikely hero, an undeniable talent, the power of music and a worldwide stage [it] (literally) has (sic) all the ingredients I love about movies. Plus I have been a fan of Journey’s music since I can remember.”
Before Crazy Rich Asians, Chu directed other Hollywood films such as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Now You See Me 2, Step Up 2: The Streets, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
“I am excited to be bringing the audience along on this incredible story with my partners at Warner Bros who have been a leading champion of diverse voices in front and behind the camera,” he told Deadline.
The Deadline article added that the studio is negotiating to license the original Journey songs which were mostly written by Perry and Schon.
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