Riding the wave of the unprecedented success of Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the band Queen, a biopic about David Bowie may be in development. The music biopic genre has been on the rise recently, and there is already anticipation surrounding the upcoming Elton John-based film, Rocketman.
Bowie left an indelible mark on the music industry, but also far beyond as he acted in a variety of films including The Last Temptation of Christ, The Prestige, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Labyrinth. After his untimely death in 2016, fans have striven to keep the star’s legacy alive. A mural was erected in his birthplace, Brixton, his apartment in New York City became a shrine dedicated to the artist for months, and New York City sold 250,000 David Bowie metro cards at the Broadway-Lafayette stop while transforming the station itself into a memorial dedicated to the late performer in April 2018. Now, there may be a biopic made about Bowie to honor his legacy.
Though no producers or studios have officially stepped forward to announce the possibility of a Bowie biopic, Bowie’s filmmaker son Duncan Jones (Warcraft) mentioned on his personal Twitter account that there are discussions of said biopic potentially happening. Jones has not revealed who it is that’s specifically insisting he “take a meeting” about making the biopic, but he added a poll on Twitter with potential actors to play his father in the yet unannounced biopic. That said, his Twitter poll options suggest Jones is not taking the possible film very seriously.
It appears that Jones may not be fully on board with this project, though it’s not entirely surprising as the posthumous representation of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody has been so hotly debated by fans and critics alike. Perhaps the film faces more hurtles than just finding the correct actor to portray Jones’ one-of-a-kind superstar father. In a follow-up tweet, Jones responded to a fan who asked why Tilda Swinton was not one of the choices in his Twitter poll, saying, “Because this answer is me telling them to shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
Bohemian Rhapsody’s wild success has positioned music film fans into two distinct camps. Some viewers seem to feel that the representation of these musical legends offers a fun conduit to bring the icons of yesteryear to a new generation of fans, while others feel quite strongly that there is no one who could possibly portray unparalleled historical figures like Freddie Mercury or David Bowie - even if that person is Rami Malek. At least for Bowie, Jones will help maintain his father’s legacy in the way that he would have wanted.
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Source: Duncan Jones
