SO WILL BOY GEORGE JOIN THE BIOPIC CLUB WITH PLANS FOR €65M MOVIE?
BOY GEORGE is in New York, preparing to tread the boards on Broadway for Moulin Rouge! The Musical — but I hear Hollywood is in his sights, too.
A €65 million deal is afoot to tell his life story in a studio picture titled Karma Chameleon, which will cover his rise from punk beginnings to pop superstardom, featuring on the cover of Newsweek magazine.
The heart of the film will tell how George O’Dowd, born into a working class Irish Catholic family in South London, rose to iconic status as a man in a dress who told interviewers that he liked both men and women — but would rather have a nice cup of tea than sex.
Behind closed doors, of course, he was involved in a secret doomed love affair with his Culture Club bandmate Jon Moss, and many of the band’s biggest hits were written about his feelings for the drummer. Plans to tell the Boy George story have been in the works for some time, and a previous version of the biopic was announced in April 2021. That was to be directed by Sacha Gervasi — the father of Geri Halliwell’s daughter, Bluebell — from a script he wrote, and with Gervasi’s wife, Jessica de Rothschild, as producer.
However I understand that Gervasi, who is based in Los Angeles, is now off the project; and that the studio which is buying the picture is going to have a completely new script written. They hope to shoot towards the end of this year.
All concerned hope to emulate the successes of Bohemian Rhapsody (the Queen biopic) and Rocket Man (the Elton John story). Producers aim to cast a rising name as George — and another as Moss.
I’m told Dubliner and man of the moment Barry Keoghan is fancied as the singer with Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey a possibility for the handsome Mr Moss.
A source says: ‘Everyone liked Sacha and his script. But the company who have come in want a much bigger film, with pop fantasy elements. It will dig more into George’s punk roots and his legacy in the LGBTQi field.’
From next month George will play club owner and emcee Harold Zidler in a Broadway production of Moulin Rouge! based on the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film. The show is due to run till May.