Director Joe Berlinger has both true crime and Metallica documentaries on his filmography, and those subjects will be colliding in his latest film, the Ted Bundy biopic EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL, AND VILE (which we just refer to as EXTREMELY WICKED for the sake of brevity).
Since Bundy was locked away for good a few years before Metallica was even formed, you can't exactly just stick a Metallica song into a scene. So Berlinger has found a different way to involve the band: he has cast co-founder/lead vocalist James Hetfield in an acting role.
Starring Zac Efron as Bundy and Lily Collins as his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, EXTREMELY WICKED is told from
the point of view of Kloepfer during the multi-year period that Bundy hid his murder spree from his live-in lover.
Hetfield will be playing Utah highway patrolman Bob Hayward, "the first law enforcement officer to arrest Bundy in 1975 after pulling the killer over and discovering burglary tools in his car, but wisely suspecting much worse."
This will be the first time Hetfield will be playing a character other than himself on screen in a dramatic role. Berlinger had this to say about the casting choice:
Having spent hundreds of hours behind the scenes with James and the rest of Metallica, I have experienced his charisma and powerful presence close up. It seemed only natural that he would bring that same power and magnetism to a dramatic role, so when he agreed to my pitch that he be in the movie, I was thrilled."
Scripted by Michael Werwie, EXTREMELY WICKED also stars John Malkovich, Jim Parsons, Haley Joel Osment, Kaya Scodelario, Angela Sarafyan, Jeffrey Donovan, Terry Kinney, Grace Victoria Cox, and Dylan Baker.
Filming is currently underway in Covington, Kentucky.