Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan reveals that Slipknot biopic is “most definitely going to happen”
In a brand new interview, Slipknot drummer Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan discussed the idea of a Slipknot biopic to show fans a true depiction of the band’s genesis and journey thus far. Although such a project is far from our screens, for now, he revealed some interesting ideas about how it might go down.
When asked if the band would ever consider a Slipknot biopic in the style of Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, Clown answered: “It wasn’t that long ago that I was very frustrated with this sort of idea, because the business, if you will, was pressuring us for something like that.”
“The problem is,” Clown told NME, “is that I watched Bohemian Rhapsody, and it’s strictly one-sided. And the people that wrote it and stuff, they’ll tell you, ‘Oh, it’s supposed to be one-sided.’ It’s just about the star, you know, it’s Freddie Mercury’s story – but I’m a Brian May fan as well, and I want to know more about him. But you can’t do that in two hours, and the suits in the corporate world, who maintain the [film industry], they don’t want to do more than two hours. That’s too much of a risk for their business, and unfortunately, they control how art is handled and gets to the majority of the human race.”
He assured fans that a Slipknot biopic is “most definitely going to happen” in the future, but not under the helm of a major Hollywood studio. “It wasn’t that long ago that people wanted to make action figures of us, and they didn’t even get to [the prototype stage] because they wanted to mock us up as grandiose and fantastical and superhero-ish,” he said, explaining why the band would avoid the Hollywood mainstream. “My philosophy was always like, ‘Don’t you think that the real Slipknot is scarier than anything [pretend] you can make me into? The fact that I’m human, and that we bring that sort of fear out of people?’
“I could never get anybody to create us, so I’m kind of holding that to the film. I’ve had so many ideas brought to me, and there’s so many people who are frustrated with me about it. They’ve actually told me, ‘Maybe it’d be better if you’re not involved.’ And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, we’ll see how that works for you.’ Because if I’m not involved, that means I’m not involved. That means, ‘Good luck with whatever the fuck you’re trying to do, because I’m not going to approve a word of it.’
“They push, but I’m not interested. Because that’s fucking cheese to its finest, to make something just so I can have all the suits walk out of it going, ‘That was really good!’ It’s like, ‘You never played with us in the band, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! You’re just impressed that some putz director hit a mark in some visual way for theatres to sell popcorn. Get the fuck out of here. This is my life.’”
Clown said initiatives like Web3 – which he’s involved in via Knotverse and his own NFT project – are changing that. “Web3 is creating all sorts of situations for kids that should be directing movies, but never would’ve had a chance [in Hollywood] because they don’t have a network or they’re not in the scene,” he said. “I mean, the internet is a wonderful place for talent. So now, with all these kids taking over their own destinies, if the right people approached me and wanted to do [a Slipknot biopic], there would be a way to hash it out.”
When asked whether he could helm the Slipknot biopic himself, he said he has “some very insane ideas for how to make it work” but would need assistance from “some very creative people” to make it work. He explained: “I’m not a writer. I can only give you the stories. But if I sat down with some really creative [screenwriters], I would be able to tell them all these ideas and we could come up with something that would make people say, ‘Yes, we’ll give you the money to make that.’”
Clown revealed that if he had it his way, they would tell their story through a miniseries. “I love True Detective, and that [first season] was eight episodes long,” he said. “I’m thinking about eight-to-15 episodes. That way, you can go in the past and see [the late] Paul Gray playing a right-handed guitar when he’s left-handed; I can go back to when I was a little kid, and tell all the stories about the crazy shit Joey [Jordison, Slipknot’s ex-drummer who died in 2021] used to do. I can paint all those pictures that would make you go, ‘Oh, that’s why this fucking dude is who he is!’
“I’m not making Bohemian Rhapsody, man. There’s a lot of dudes [in Slipknot] that need to be represented equally – not one is greater than the other, and you can’t explain the band without explaining all of them. And then there’s our first manager [Sophia John], who passed away – that story would have to be in there – and then there’s a motley crew of about a dozen other motherfuckers… I mean, it’s a big story, man! It’s insane. So we’re gonna do it, but we’re gonna do it our way.”
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