Elton: My life has been so surreal
THE MAKING OF THE ELTON JOHN MOVIE ROCKETMAN IS TURNING INTO ABIT OF A RE-UNION MIKE KELLY REPORTS
THE planned film Rocketman about music legend Sir Elton John is turning into a Billy Elliot reunion.
The script for it has been penned by Newcastlebased Lee Hall who also wrote the script for the 2000 released film set during the miners strike in the North East. And later John worked with Hall on the acclaimed musical version of it.
It has now been revealed that Jamie Bell, who played Billy Elliot, has got a leading role in Rocketman.
He is set to play Sir Elton’s longtime songwriting collaborator, Bernie Taupin, according to Variety magazine.
Taupin began collaborating on songs with John back in 1967, and they two worked together on hits including “Crocodile Rock,” “Daniel”, “Candle in the Wind,” “Sorry seems to be the hardest word”, “Bennie and the Jets,” and the title of the project, “Rocket Man.”
The film has been in the works for a long time - we first reported on it back in 2011.
Elton John said then: “I’d just like to make a really great film about my life story. We have a great script already by Lee Hall who wrote Billy Elliot.
“Obviously, it’s not going to be your normal, run-of-the mill film because my life has kind of been crazy. And I think it’s important to do a kind of surrealistic take on my life.
“It’s not going to be a biopic, like Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, but more like Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge.
“My life’s been so surreal – from a football club to God knows what. It’s been drama all the way. I’ve been married to a woman, I’ve been married to a man, I’ve had a baby.”
With Bell in place the film is moving towards production with Taron Egerton, star of Kingsman, playing Sir Elton.
Dexter Fletcher is in the director’s chair and Matthew Vaughn is producing alongside John and partner David Furnish.
Bell is coming off the series ‘TURN: Washington Spies,’ broadcast on US network AMC, where he starred as American spy Abraham Woodhull and which recently ended its four-year run on the network. Bell was also recently seen opposite Annette Bening in “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.”