MUSIC NEWS - A film about the life of Grateful Dead guitarist/leader, Jerry Garcia is currently under development. The as yet unnamed movie will look at Garcia's life in the Bay Area before he joined the rock band that would become the Grateful Dead ; including his time in the military, a life-changing car accident and his first artistic ers with the North California music scene, like Phil Lesh, future Dead bassist. Film will be partly based on Robert Greenfield's book "Dark Star", as the filmmakers have secured the rights, Dark Star is an oral history of Garcia from dozens of folks that knew him, including musicians, relatives and artist friends like Ken Kesey. The music rights are currently being negotiated, but since the film covers the period in Garcia's life that's pre-Dead, there may be fewer problems in securing the music. Topper Lilien, is to write the screenplay. The producers of the Garcia film (Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa and Eric Eisner), worked on previous indie film hits "Election" and "Little Miss Sunshine ". Eisner produced the Sundance hit "Hamlet 2" with Berger. Mr Yerxa and is producing "Bait," a remake of Betrand Tavenier's mid-'90s French thriller. This will be the first film about Jerry Garcia, while The Dead has been the subject of number of documentaries; including 1977's now classic, "The Grateful Dead Movie ," a concert film Garcia directed. No word on cast or release date yet.