Sex Pistols Biopic Series 'Pistol' to Debut in May
The Sex Pistols were to the U.K. in the 1970s what Nirvana was to the U.S. in the 1990s. They revolutionized the era's music industry and changed people's preconceived notions of how rock-and-roll could sound. The band lasted only two and a half years, and only released one full-length album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, in 1977. But in the 30 months they existed, they launched the punk movement in rock and roll, which later evolved into the alternative music scene. Their fashion choices are still relevant in culture today, from the dilapidated black leather and torn clothes to the silver spike jewelry and safety pin accessories.
The band has inspired films before (Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb's Sid & Nancy is probably the best known), but Pistol marks the first TV project to delve into who the Sex Pistols were and why they mattered. Based on guitarist Steve Jones' 2017 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, the six-episode limited series follows the band's original lineup Steve Jones, John Lydon, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock, as they rose to fame, the band's first crackup when Matlock was fired and replaced with Sid Vicious, through the 1978 breakup.
The series was initially commissioned in January 2021, and series creator Craig Pearce reached out to all the living band members to get creative input. But Lydon apparently refused to be involved and declared the series "the most disrespectful shit I've ever had to endure" and sued in July 2021 to keep the production from using the band's music from being used in the series. A judge decided in favor of the show a month later, but fans should expect more mess in the press with the series now having set a release date.
