Gnarly-dude-turned-documentary-filmmaker Alex Winter has started in on his latest project, a retrospective of the life and career of rock legend and expert mustache possessor Frank Zappa. The film, as yet-untitled, has the Zappa Famly Trust’s approval, and will chart the life and successes of Zappa, whose band, The Mothers Of Invention, had a long-lasting impact on musical history—not unlike Wyld Stallyns, a fake band that Winter pretended to be a member of, more than half a lifetime ago.
Winter’s previous documentary work includes Deep Web, which he produced for Epix with narration help from his Bill & Ted co-star and “Bitcoin enthusiast” Keanu Reeves, and Downloaded, a documentary about filesharing that aired on VH1, despite not having any obvious Bill & Ted connections for viewers and critics to get unhealthily fixated upon.
Ahmet Zappa pledged his support to Winter’s effort to tell his father’s story, saying, “This is not an easy story to tell, and we trust that Alex truly understands the complex and multi-faceted man that my father was.” Zappa did not go on to growl “Station!” in a silly voice, because he’s a grown-up man, and not an A.V. Club Newswire writer with deep immaturity issues. The documentary is expected to be finished in 2017, or sooner, if someone finds one of the old time-traveling phone booths that Winter once stepped into, transporting himself very slowly into a future where people’s attachment to his past work will never truly let him go.