On November 15, HBO is set to premiere the new Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane. Directed by Brett Morgen, who previously oversaw The Kid Stays in the Picture, a 2002 documentary about Godfather/Chinatown film producer Robert Evans, the clip is billed as “an aural and visual rollercoaster ride” that’ll let us “experience firsthand the Stones’ nearly mythical journey from outsiders to rock and roll royalty.”
A new trailer for the documentary won’t surprise you with its choice of music — “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” — as it mixes archival footage with self-aware voice-overs about the Stones’ decision to wear “the black hat” as opposed to the Beatles’ “white hat.” Because as anybody scalping tickets for the Stones’ reunion shows can tell you, there’s nothing so rebellious as filling an underserved market niche. Teasing aside, a very youthful Mick Jagger can also be seen enthusing about “some kind of chemical reaction” that seemed to have happened for the Stones in America.
In honor of the Stones’ 50th anniversary, the band will play a pair of shows in London next month and then two more in New Jersey in December, with more dates potentially on the way. A career-spanning anthology with two new songs, GRRR!, is due out on November 13, one week after the Stones’ 1965 Ireland travelogue Charlie Is My Darling comes out on DVD on November 6.
