Details has learned that an upcoming independent film titled Limp depicts Hutchence as a jaded A&R man who suggests to a young musician that he kill himself in order to ensure a place in rock immortality. The film eerily overshadows Hutchence's death. In the script, Hutchence's character, Clive, says, "Cobain was close. But only because he killed himself... It was brilliant on his part. Otherwise he would have just been another flavor of the day... Give me one good reason you shouldn't kill yourself."
"Hutchence threw himself into Clive fully," says Limp co-star Robby Sutton. "What he said was shocking, but how he said it was even more shocking. It was from the pit of his stomach with belief."
Even so, Sutton isn't convinced that Hutchence was suicidal. Writer-director-star Duane Lavold, a former Slamdance Audience Award winner for his 1997 short film Loafing, isn't either. He says that Hutchence did not fit the stereotype of a depressed, aging rocker. Hutchence often palled around the cast and crew, bursting into '80s songs whenever the mood struck him. "He put his ego aside and worked sixteen hour days almost for free," says Lavold. "We didn't have any star wagons for him."
"Michael wasn't looking for the big motion picture," says his former manager, Martha Troup. "He knew he had to work his way up in acting, and he was committed." She confirms that among other projects, Hutchence was interested in playing a recurring villian in an upcoming TV series based on The Crow.
"Prior to leaving for Australia," Troup says, "he had just read a script for a sequel to From Dusk Till Dawn. In fact, I spoke to him the morning of the day he died, and you could hear the optimism. Unfortunately, no one will ever know what happened those last couple of minutes."
Written by Jimmy Jellinek
[transcribed by nkoth@worldnet.att.net]