According to a new report, the latest entry in the 2025 movie schedule is a biopic about The Scorpions. The band was one of the biggest in Europe in the 1980s. Their insane popularity in Europe, especially in their home country of West Germany with huge hits like “Winds Of Change” and “Rock You Like A Hurricane,” was matched all over the world in the late '80s and early '90s. The news has me wondering: will the film touch on a popular conspiracy theory that the CIA was involved in the writing and release of “Winds of Change?”
Dominic West Headlines The Cast Of Winds Of Change
Deadline is reporting that Dominic West, Alexander Dreymon, Ludwig Trepte and Ed Speleers will lead the cast of the biopic, reportedly (and appropriately) called Winds of Change. West will play the German band’s manager, Doc McGhee. Not much else is known about the movie at this point, except that filming is already underway and it could be out later this year.
That leaves a lot of room to speculate about the movie. Certainly it will touch on the band’s huge success in Europe in the 1980s, when they became one of Germany’s biggest bands worldwide. They played a unique role at the tail end of the Cold War as a band from the heart of it, West Germany. According to a podcast titled Winds of Change, they may have even been influential in ending the decades-long standoff between West and East, which has long been a popular setting for movies.
Did The CIA Have Input in “Winds Of Change”
In the podcast, the host, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, investigates a rumor from within the CIA that the spy agency either wrote the song or gave the band input into the lyrics as a piece of Western propaganda. The lyrics are clear enough,
I follow the Moskva Down to Gorky Park Listening to the wind of change
The Moskva is a river in Moscow that does indeed flow along Gorky Park, a park built in the Soviet era to celebrate all things CCCP. It was a famous park, even in the West, with a movie from 1983 being named after it and protests happening in and around it in the final days of the USSR. The “winds of change” were, of course, the increasing openness in the USSR with the policies of glasnost and perestroika sensing the end of communism in Russia. The song is encouraging more change, more openness and perhaps the collapse of the whole Soviet system.
Including The Conspiracy Could Make A Simple Biopic Into A Cold War Thriller
We’ve seen a lot of great biopics about musicians over the last decade or so, so making Winds Of Change a Cold War spy thriller could really add a fun dynamic. Alas, this might be a long shot. The Deadline article mentions that the band members are involved in the production, and it’s being made with their blessing. Lead singer Klaus Meine, who wrote “Winds Of Change,” has denied that the CIA had anything to do with the song. Still, I want to believe the theory is true, and I really want the movie to be about this.
Either way, this is an exciting addition to the list of upcoming music biopics coming out in the next few months and on the 2026 movie schedule. I’ll be first in line to find out if it’s about a band or a bunch of spies.
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