7 Great Music Biopics to Watch While Aaliyah Movie Is 'On Hold'

Disney star Zendaya Coleman has dropped out of Limetime's planned Aaliyah biopic, and production on the film has ground to a halt. With a public outcry from Aaliyah fans against the film, and legal troubles obstructing Lifetime from securing the rights to the late singer's music, it looks like we may not get that Aaliyah biopic for some time, if ever.

That being said, if you really need your fix of tragic biopics that follow the rise and fall of talented musicians' lives, you don't have to wait until August 1 for the James Brown film Get On Up to hit theaters. Just check out one of these amazing films.

This heartbreaking 2005 film tells the story of country music legend Johnny Cash and his romantic entanglement with June Carter. It chronicles his rise to the top of the country music scene, and how his wild, rebellious nature caused deep problems in his personal life. Joaquin Phoenix shines as the Man In Black, while Reese Witherspoon earned an Oscar for her role as June.

Not exactly a laugh riot, Sid and Nancy is an amazing film from 1989 that stars Gary Oldman in one of his earliest and rawest performances. It follows the more-than-tumultuous life of Sid Vicious, his involvement with The Sex Pistols, his dependency on heroin and his ill-fated relationship with Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) that ended in her death.

While not a real biopic, Walk Hard is a brilliant amalgam of every musician biopic ever made, with a heavy emphasis on spoofing Walk The Line. John C. Reilly stars as the eponymous Dewey Cox who ends up writing a hit song at the age of 15, and becoming a music legend who gets addicted to every single drug imaginable. It's hilarious, and it kind of spoils all other biopics.

Like R&B singer Aaliyah, Selena was a beloved and celebrated performer who died far before her time. While Aaliyah died in a tragic plane crash at the age of 22, Selena was shot by a former member of her fan club at the age of 23. This 1997 film shows all Selena accomplished in her short life, and was the film that put singer and actress Jennifer Lopez on the map.

There is a reason Jamie Fox won an Oscar for his role in Ray. The 2004 film tells the rise, fall and rise again of legendary blind piano player and singer Ray Charles. It's arguably one of the most inspiring, touching and genuinely brilliant biopics every made.

This trippy tale of the 70s rock band The Doors stars Val Kilmer as the legendary frontman Jim Morrison, and no actor on Earth ever looked more like the real person they were portraying than Kilmer. The film follows the band's meteoric rise until Morrison's untimely Parisian death, where he joined the notorious 27 club.

Admittedly, this isn't a film about a musician who could be considered contemporary, but Amadeus is the gold standard when you're talking about historical biopics. The 1984 movie won eight Oscars, including two for Best Actor (Tom Hulce), one for Best Director and Best Picture, among others. It tells the life story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the eyes of his fiercest rival Antonio Salieri, and it is simply amazing.