Getty Images
.
If you were hoping for a more traditional version of A Star is Born from director Clint Eastwood, think again. Screenwriter Will Fetters spoke with CraveOnline during press rounds for the new Zac Efron film The Lucky Ones and offered up some interesting differences this particular remake will have with its multiple predecessors – namely, that the inspiration for the male lead is none other than Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. More details below.

For those of you who have never seen one of the three previous film versions, the story surrounds a formerly successful movie star named Norman Maine who meets an aspiring young singer named Esther Blodgett. Maine takes her under his wing and, similar to this year’s Best Picture Winner The Artist, the film charts the rise in popularity of Esther against the fall of Norman and explores the effects that has on their relationship. It appears Eastwood’s take on the material will be a bit more modern and have a heavy music slant to it, considering Beyonce has already been cast as Esther and they’re looking at Rock of Ages star Tom Cruise to take the Norman Maine role. Here’s what Fetters had to say about his approach to the material:
.

I think I’ve reinvented the Norman Maine character, the lead,” Fetters said. “I wanted to do A Star is Born because I’m a huge Kurt Cobain fan. That was like my Kennedy assassination when I was a teenager. When he died it was a huge horrible thing. So I approached A Star is Born, for me the framework was all right, if Kurt Cobain never got to go Unplugged and survived and it’s 20 years later and it’s now, and he wanted to try to do that album with that understanding as this grunge icon. That’d be tough to get done if he was past his prime, no longer selling, how does he get that album?

.
He also spoke about the nature of the music industry and the inherent drama that lies in exploring that territory on film:
.

The music industry’s changing. It’s harder to be a successful artist and make money off it, especially if you’re a dinosaur. If you’re a guy in your 50s, in a world of Justin Bieber, if you’re Kurt Cobain now in your 50s, what do you do? How do you exist in this world?

.
Sounds like the finished movie will bear a certain resemblence not only to The Artist, but to the movie that earned Jeff Bridges an Academy Award for Best Actor a few years ago, Crazy Heart. What do you think about the modernized Cobain angle in this version of A Star is Born?