The new film tells the story of a 1960s biker gang in the American Midwest. <\/p>
So far, 2024 has been blessed with several great films boasting star-studded casts \u2013 from Dune: Part Two<\/a> to The Fall Guy<\/a> \u2013 and it\u2019s safe to add The Bikeriders<\/a> to that list.<\/p>\n Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy<\/a> all have key roles in the film \u2013 in addition to supporting parts for Mike Faist, Norman Reedus and Michael Shannon \u2013 with most of those stars playing characters based on real-life figures.<\/p>\n Those figures are taken from Danny Lyon\u2019s 1967 photobook of the same name, which chronicled the lives of the members of an Illinois motorcycle club called Outlaws MC \u2013 the name of which has been changed to Vandals MC in the film.<\/p>\n But just how much are the events seen in the film based on real life? Read on for everything you need to know.<\/p> The short answer is that the film is inspired by a true story<\/strong>, rather than based directly on one. Writer\/director Jeff Nichols used the aforementioned photobook as a jumping off point to write a fictionalised story using imagined versions of some of the people captured in Lyon\u2019s images \u2013 but it is not a factual account of Outlaws MC.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI found the book in 2003,\u201d Nichols told RadioTimes.com<\/a> during an exclusive interview.. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t sit down and really start writing the script until 2019. So that\u2019s 16 years of carrying this thing around, it actually felt like a bit like a party trick. You know, I could go up to someone and say, \u2018Hey, do you want to hear my \u201960s biker film idea?\u2019<\/p>\n He added: \u201cBut the substance wasn\u2019t really there yet. The work wasn\u2019t really there. It wasn\u2019t until I sat down and said, \u2018Okay, how much of this thing do I fictionalise? How much do I keep? What am I really trying to do with this film?\u2019 Which ultimately came down to\u2026 I want to get to the human beings that Danny captured, I want to get whatever their essence is, I want to try to get that out on the page. And it took a while to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n Nichols further explained that Lyon himself (who appears as a character in the film as played by Mike Faist) came to set one day to watch it being filmed \u2013 and that he was happy to give it his stamp of approval.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was nerve racking, you know,\u201d Nichols explained. \u201cDanny has been extremely generous with me and\u2026 he\u2019s a \u201960s radical, you know. He\u2019s a contrarian. So from the beginning, I was like, \u2018You\u2019re gonna hate this. This is gonna be terrible.\u2019 Just so I could hear him say \u2018Nah, no, I\u2019m not.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe was so generous with everything he gave to us, you know. But the night that he visited set it was kind of cool to see him walk into our set and and feel like it got his stamp of approval, you know, which he gave. And it meant a lot when I showed him the film finally, he really loved it. He just thought his character should have been dirtier!\u201d<\/p>\n The Bikeriders is now showing in UK cinemas.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Film<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n The new film tells the story of a 1960s biker gang in the American Midwest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":53603,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/is-the-bikeriders-based-on-a-true-story.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The new film tells the story of a 1960s biker gang in the American Midwest.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/53602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is The Bikeriders based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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