Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way backs a Shifty Shellshock documentary film

Werewolf in the Waves, the documentary Soleil Moon Frye made about her friendship with Shifty Shellshock, has picked up two more executive producers. Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and the Emmy winning producer and entrepreneur Dax Dasilva have joined the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Frye directed the film and stays on as an executive producer alongside Appian Way's Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson, Dasilva, and Shellshock's sisters Aubrey Binzer and Mieke Binzer Dumont. The arrangement reunites Frye with Appian Way, which worked with her on Kid 90, her 2021 documentary assembled from the home video archive she shot growing up as a child actor.

Her connection to the subject predates any of the music. The two knew each other from adolescence, and the film began as an attempt to document his attempted comeback before turning into something closer to a record of addiction, mental health, friendship and loss. It was shot largely on an iPhone and has played several festivals, including Doc Edge, where it was selected as an international feature finalist.

"Seth's dream was to share his journey with the world," Frye said, framing the project around Shellshock's own hope that it would help people struggling with addiction feel less alone. Of Dasilva coming aboard she said his heart and passion for the story meant a great deal to her.

Shellshock, born Seth Binzer, died on June 24, 2024, at 49. His public life was shaped by two things that pulled in opposite directions: an enormous early breakthrough and the substance abuse that followed it. Crazy Town's 2000 debut The Gift of Game fused rap, rock and metal at the height of the crossover era, and Butterfly, built on a sample of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Pretty Little Ditty, became a huge hit in 2001.

The band never repeated it, and the years afterwards were defined more by his struggles than his records. A film made by someone who knew him before any of that happened offers a different entry point than a conventional hip-hop or rock documentary would.

Music documentaries have been arriving steadily this year, among them a trailer for the Travis Barker film Louder Than Fear and a Neil Peart documentary due this fall.