Musical biopics are a tricky film to make, with most falling into trite idolization of their subjects and refusing to acknowledge the flaws. Then there’s the whole process of getting the family estates to sign off on the films, and if and when they do it usually leads to said trite idolization. But every now and then the stars align just right. The Wrap reports that Martin Scorsese is prepping a biopic about legendary punk rock group The Ramones to shoot after he finishes up his current film Silence, with a release date aiming for sometime in 2016 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of The Ramones first record, titled Ramones, in 1976.
My dad, a longtime Ramones fan, sent me an email as soon as the news broke. He made some jokes about wanting to see Brad Pitt do Dee-Dee’s dead stare, and predicted this as Christian Bale’s next big weight loss role as well as declaring Joey Ramone as the role Michael Cera was born to play. As much as I’d like to see that, I have my own fan-casting for now. Adam Driver for Dee-Dee. Tell me you can’t picture it. He’s in Scorsese’s next film Silence so he’ll have built up a relationship with him, and will certainly have some newfound box office draw once audiences see him in Star Wars Episode VII.
With Scorsese, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, at the helm we can count on the fact that this won’t be a safe biopic. Scorsese has never been afraid to put the flaws and nastiness of his characters on full display, so we can expect to get a full account of this group’s history, warts and all. No writer is attached at this time, so it will likely be a while before we get any concrete forward movement on the project. But for now, let’s fan-cast away!
Source: The Wrap