If you ever wondered what pop star Nick Jonas would look like rocking out in KISS frontman Paul Stanley’s “Starman” makeup and outfit, you may be in luck. According to an exclusive report in Deadline, Jonas is close to signing a deal to portray Stanley in the forthcoming KISS biopic Shout It Out Loud.
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The long-gestating film, which tells the story of the famed New York City-based rock band’s formation during the 1970s, will be directed by McG. Shout It Out Loud will go into production either in late 2025 or early 2026. The latest draft of the movie’s script is being penned by Darren Lemke, whose credits include Shrek Forever After, Goosebumps, Shazam!, and Kung Fu Panda 4.
Sources told Deadline that Jonas will do his own singing in the biopic, and will be taking time to train so he can replicate Stanley’s vocal style. Nick, of course, has been a successful singer and songwriter with his famous sibling group The Jonas Brothers and as a solo artist. He also has experience acting in films and theater. Jonas’ movie credits include Goat, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Midway, and The Good Half. Among the Broadway plays and musicals Nick has acted in are Annie Get Your Gun, Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and The Last Five Years.
McG reportedly also is close to hiring an actor to play KISS singer/bassist Gene Simmons. Stanley and Simmons co-founded the group with guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.
More About Shout It Out Loud
Shout It Out Loud has been in pre-production for several years. In 2023, it was announced that Netflix had picked up the project and planned to release it in 2024. The film now is being fully financed by the STX Entertainment company. Stanley, Simmons, and longtime KISS manager Doc McGhee are among the movie’s co-producers.
In a 2021 interview posted on the Download Festival’s YouTube channel, Stanley was asked about the casting of an actor to play him in the biopic.
“[A]s the casting process goes on, I’ll certainly be there and watching,” he noted. “It’ll be interesting to see how someone else—be it the casting people or the director—[views] 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.”
(Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival; Photo by Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
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