MovieChat Forums > The Temptations (1998) Discussion > New Movie Idea

New Movie Idea

posted 14 years ago by nikkilynn1982
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It would be great if the people responsible for making "The Temptations" movie would do a film on the greatest girl group of the early '60's: The Ronettes (lead singer, Ronnie Bennett, her sister Estelle, and their cousin Nedra Talley.) Anyone who knows these ladies' story would agree: it would make a hell of a movie! Think about it: three beautiful, young, bi-racial ladies finding success, fame and fortune in early 1960's America with the nut-case Phil Spector managing their careers and eventually destroying it and breaking them up due to his marriage to, and obsessive jealousy of the lead singer, Ronnie. Their cousin Nedra accepts the group's breaking up and marries and becomes a born-again Christian. Meanwhile, the third member, Estelle, Ronnie's sister, unable to find success with a solo career and unable to come to grips with the loss of fame and fortune, battles mental illness. Often referred to as "the prettiest Ronette", who once dated George Harrison, Mick Jagger, George Hamilton and Johnny Mathis, she's even homeless for a time. After years of battling Phil Spector in court, the three are cheated out of millions in royalties from their many hits. Phil Spector also successfully keeps them from being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2007 (when he himself is in court battling charges of first degree murder for killing actress Lana Clarkson at his home).

This would be a fabulous movie, if it was handled with the class and style that was put into making "The Temptations".

[–] jefgg 9 years ago

More than ten years ago Tom Cruise was set to star in a film about Phil Spector with Cameron Crowe directing. I don't know what happened to that project.

Ronnie Spector's autobiography "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness" was published in 1989 and updated in 2004. I don't know if she ever received any offers to make it into a movie.

Ronnie's sister and fellow Ronette Estelle Bennett quit the music business and was rarely seen after The Ronettes' 1966 breakup. When the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame she was too fragile to perform and spoke only a brief two sentences during her acceptance speech. In 2009 she passed away from colon cancer at the age of 67. A week later it was revealed that she had suffered from anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia in the years after the Ronettes break up and had been homeless.