Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia is to be the subject of a new biopic, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The film will be produced by Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (whose hits include Election and Little Miss Sunshine) and Eric Eisner (who produced Hamlet 2 with Berger and Yerxa).

The biopic will focus on Garcia's early life before founding the band that he led for 30 years until his death in 1995. The project is based largely on Robert Greenfield's biography, Dark Star, a collection of accounts from dozens of people who knew Garcia, including musicians, relatives and artist friends such as Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Garcia's childhood and youth were colourful, to say the least. At the age of four, two-thirds of the middle finger on his right hand were chopped off by his brother in a wood-cutting accident. Less than a year later, his father died while fly-fishing in northern California's Trinity river. Garcia later spent some time in the army and was in a life-changing car accident before he began to get involved in the San Francisco music scene.

No director has yet signed on for the project, and there are no casting details. The Grateful Dead have in the past been the subject of several documentaries, including 1977's Garcia-directed concert film, The Grateful Dead Movie, but the new feature is the first big-screen telling of Garcia's life story.