River Road Prepping Brian Wilson Biopic

River Road Entertainment is assembling the pieces for a movie about Brian Wilson, the leader of the Beach Boys.

The company announced Thursday that it has secured Wilson’s life rights as well as those of his wife Melinda Wilson. Oren Moverman, who co-wrote and directed The Messenger as well as the screenplay for the unconvential Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, is currently writing a screenplay.

River Road founder Bill Pohlad, who produced the current The Tree of Life, and John Wells Prods. will produce, with Jim Lefkowitz executive producing.

Wilson wrote more than 15 Top 40 hit singles and the groundbreaking 1966 Pet Sounds album before suffering a nervous breakdown during the making of its follow-up album Smile. River Road said film will take an unconventional look at Wilson's unique musical process as well as his struggles with mental illness, and how he managed to persevere as an artist with the love and support of his wife Melinda.

The iconic sound of the Beach Boys has exerted a strong pull on Hollywood.

The Beach Boys were the subject of a 2000 TV movie, The Beach Boys: An American Family, in which Frederick Weller played Wilson. Wilson’s also been the subject of the documentaries Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times and Songwriter 1962-1969.

Fox 2000 and producuers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have also been developing a movie, written by Susannah Grant, that would tell a fictional tale about Southern California’s 1960s surfing scene that would play out against Beach Boys songs.

Moverman, who is repped by WME and NY Office, just completed Rampart, which he co-wrote and directed, and is currently working on the Untitled Kurt Cobain Project for Working Title and Universal.