Paul Stanley gave fans an update on the upcoming Kiss biopic, Shout It Out Loud, now in pre-production. Blabbermouth transcribed some of the “Star Child’s” chat with Download host Kylie Olsson, in which he said, “It is definitely happening and that’s gonna be really interesting. The script was really good. And we really waited until we felt comfortable. Look, you get once chance to do it, and I would rather not do it than do it half assed or poorly. Our director (Joachim Ronning) is the real deal. He did Maleficent 2, and he’s not some hack; he knows how to make movies. It should be great. Casting hasn’t begun yet. But that will be interesting too.”
Stanley went on to explain, “(We’re) casting to be accurate in terms of age, we are looking at actors in their early-20’s. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot of actors in their early-20’s. When people get asked these kinds of questions, they’ll say, ‘Oh, Brad Pitt,’ or this one or that one. Well, those guys are in their 50’s or 60’s, so you’re talking about another generation of actors. And I’m the first to say I’m not up on a lot of them. But as the casting process goes on, I’ll certainly be there and watching. It’ll be interesting to see how someone else — be it the casting people or the director — how they view who I am and who they see doing that. I think I’ll learn a lot about their perception of me by who they cast.”
Both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have been quite vocal about Kiss living on far into the future long after both its co-founders have retired from the stage. Stanley told us that Kiss is far bigger and important than its past or present members: [“The people who believe that the band can’t exist or continue without me or Gene, either both or singularly, well, a lot of those people in the late-‘70s believed the band couldn’t continue without the original four. At this point they’re 50 percent wrong. And when we play to 15, 50, 100,000 people, they’re not interested in the specifics of the past — they’re interested in the band and what it represents, and what it brings to a concert, and what it stands for.”] SOUNDCUE (:33 OC: . . . it stands for)
Kiss will click off its next set of shows on August 18th in Mansfield, Massachusetts at Xfinity Center.
SIDE NOTES
- Out now is the latest career-spanning Kiss compilation, titled Kissworld – The Best Of Kiss. The 20-track collection features iconic ’70s staples alongside the band’s ’80s classics, as well as recent favorites from the band’s modern era studio collections.
- The tracklisting to Kissworld – The Best Of Kiss is: “Crazy Crazy Nights,” “Rock And Roll All Nite,” “I Was Made For Lovin’ You,” “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II,” “Detroit Rock City,” “Beth,” “Lick It Up,” “Heaven’s On Fire,” “Tears Are Falling,” “Unholy,” ‘Hard Luck Woman,” “Psycho Circus,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Calling Dr. Love,” “Christine Sixteen,” “Love Gun,” “Shandi,” “I’m A Legend Tonight,” “Modern Day Delilah,” “and “Hell Or Hallelujah.”
CHECK IT OUT: Kiss on January 26th, 1976 performing “She” live at Detroit’s Cobo Hall: