Metallica film is 'monster'

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Veteran heavy metal band Metallica will bring its story to the big screen with "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster," according to Billboard.

A preview screening was held Thursday in New York and Los Angeles, and the film is scheduled to be part of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and begin showing in theaters in 2004.

In a "Behind The Music"-type documentary, the film chronicles the two-year struggle of the band while making its latest album, "St. Anger," complete with onscreen clashes and a two-month hiatus while singer/guitarist James Hetfield goes into rehab for alcoholism. The title of the film comes from a song on "St. Anger."

In addition to this documentary, the group's first official autobiography, tentatively titled "So What! The Metallibook by Metallica," will be published in August by Broadway Books, a division of Random House.