Jonathan Rhys Meyers has to be the actor people cast to incarnate a musician on screen, I mean this is gonna be his third movie of the genre. After playing Brian Slade, a character based on David Bowie and his character Ziggy Stardust in the 1998 movie ‘Velvet Goldmine’, after playing Elvis Presley in the 2005 movie simply called ‘Elvis’, Rhys Meyers is gonna incarnate Joe Strummer in a new film about the Clash… It is a tough one, and it is strange one, how could the same guy could be Bowie, Presley and Strummer?
The film is set in 1970’s London and is apparently not a biopic as it rather follows a young boy ‘whose life changes dramatically when his estranged mother (played by Natasha McElhone who played Karen in ‘Californication’) introduces him to the music of The Clash’, by sending him a cassette of “White Riot.”
‘London Town’ is directed by Derrick Borte and is expected to wrap by the end of July, and this is a good news for Clash’s fans, the producers have been able to secure the rights to use several songs in the movie. Daniel Huttlestone (‘Into the Woods’) and Dougray Scott (‘Hitman’) also star in the film.
The Daily Mail has a few pictures of the set (and I stole one for this post), and as much as Rhys Meyers looks sexy in his torn leather pants, I can’t see Strummer in these pics. I guess for many fans Joe Strummer is that untouchable, un-playable, unreachable character, too-cool-for-a-biopic and Rhys Meyer will have a hard time to convince his audience. But at least they didn’t cast Johnny Depp.