BBC picks up Gonzo doc

British public broadcaster the BBC has snapped up the rights to air documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson.

The feature, which was produced by Taxi to the Dark Side producer Alex Gibney, will bow on BBC Storyville, the broadcaster’s international documentary strand that airs on digital terrestrial channel BBC Four. BBC Storyville boss Nick Fraser was an executive producer on the project alongside Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and Jigaw Productions’ Eva Orner. 

Gibney said that the documentary, which was funded by Mark Cuban’s HDNet Films, wasn’t a simple project: “It was extremely difficult to make, I think Hunter was punishing me,” he told TBIvision.

The two hour documentary, which was narrated by Johnny Depp, follows Thompson’s career culminating as Rolling Stone magazine’s Washington correspondent that produced Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. It contains interviews with former President Jimmy Carter, failed presidential candidate George McGovern, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, illustrator sidekick Ralph Steadman and Hell’s Angels President Sonny Barger.

“One of the things that enabled us to make a Hunter film was that he was a narcissist. He saved everything from tape recordings to photos,” Gibney added.