Duran Duran was the name of a character in the Jane Fonda flick “Barbarella”.
Veruca Salt was one of the bratty kids in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.
What other bands are named after semi-obscure movie characters?
This site is a bit of fun
http://www.8ung.at/nina_m/movies.htm
That link should take you to bands called after movies and movie characters; he’s collected a lot of examples of inspiration for band names.
There is a funk band out there called Nino Brown, named after Ice-T’s character from New Jack City. They may be from Florida, but I’m not sure.
Another FL band, Nice Guy Eddie, was named after Chris Penn’s character in Reservoir Dogs.
Kathleen Turner Overdrive 
A few years ago there was a band named “Red Five”, and obvious Star Wars reference.
Also from Star Wars, the band “Eisley”, who I understand originally went by “Mos Eisley” but changed it to avoid any legal problems.
You’d think they’d get more problems from the Eisley Brothers.
Isley = Eisley
There was a one-hit wonder band back in the 80s called Danny Wilson. They named themselves after a character played by Frank Sinatra. Just in case anyone missed the reference, their album was named after the movie: Meet Danny Wilson.
? and the Mysterians.
Had one hit song, “96 Tears”.
?'s backup band was named after the aliens in this movie:
There’s also Nerf Herder
There’s the Boo Radleys from To Kill a Mockingbird and Steely Dan from Naked Lunch, although these could be literary rather than movie references. And there’s Luke Skywalker, lead vocals for 2 Live Crew.
Priceless.
“Toad the Wet Sprocket” was named for a reference in a Monty Python sketch.
And of course, Eve Plumb’s least favorite band “Eve’s Plumb.”
One story about the Beatles is that they were named for Marlon Brando’s biker gang in The Wild Ones. I’ve never seen the movie, so no comment. Maybe they just related to Kerouac and Ginsberg?
The Ellen James Society was named for a weird feminist cult in The World According to Garp.
Love and Rockets was named for the first alt.comic book. Which is unfortunate, because the cartoonists of that book had a band of their own, likewise called Love and Rockets. They renamed it Nature Boy, after the second most lurid-sounding jazz tune ever recorded (The most lurid being Lush Life).
That clip is in the opening montage of The Beatles Anthology series. Lee Marvin(?) welcomes Brando back to the gang with “The beetles missed you…All the beetles missed you!” Don’t think it was a confirmation of the legend, just an acknowledgement.
I can’t add anything directly on point, but the band “Eve 6” took its name from an X-Files character.
Uriah Heep was a character in Oliver Twist.
Heaven 17 got their name from the fictional group in A Clockwork Orange, as did Moloko.
Black Sabbath was the name of a Boris Karloff movie.
They Might Be Giants is also the name of the movie, aSsherlock Holmes one out in the 70’s.
The Thomson twins named after charaters in the Tintin stories. (Although the comic characters aren’t actually twins.)
XTC got their name from a movie scene in which Jimmy Durante is sitting at a piano and looking for a chord. When he gets it right, he says “Dat’s it, I’m in XTC!” The band also liked the name for its modern, graphic impact. (BTW, the term “ecstasy” for MDMA was coined in the mid-'80s, long after the band had settled on their name.)
Alfie is presumably named for the '60’s melodrama, Michael Caine’s title character, or perhaps the theme song by Burt Bacharach.
Bananrama was inspired by a children’s TV show (“The Banana Splits”) and the Roxy Music song “Pyjamarama”.
The Big Country could’ve been named for the western; I don’t know. (I researched the band on the net for a bit but didn’t find an explanation for the name.)
The true origin for the name The Flaming Lips is obscure, but one of the rumored sources is a porn flick.
lit refs:
**The Feelies ** was a form of entertainment in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (a classic novel turned okay made-for-TV movie).
**The Mekons ** got their name from a sci-fi comic, Dan Dare.
miscell.:
Talking Heads was named for a communications slang term for TV news readers, interviewees, etc. – anybody who appears on TV as a “talking head” shot.
Sam Phillips isn’t a movie reference; she’s a sometime actress! (In Die Hard With A Vengeance, she played Jeremy Irons’ villainness lover.)
That is, Bananarama. Not that anybody cares.
I was going to say that one.
Well, the only other one I know is T’Pau is named for a Vulcan character from Star Trek:The Original Series.