Shaun Ryder confirms biopic is still in the works
Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder has confirmed that his long-awaited biopic is still in the works, but explained how creative differences have led to a search for new funding.
Over a decade ago, ITV announced their plans to adapt Twisting The Melon, Ryder’s 2011 autobiography, into a biopic. By 2019, Skins star Jack O’Connell was set to take on the role of Ryder, while Matt Greenhalgh would direct and produce.
Now, Ryder has revealed that a creative dispute has halted Greenhalgh’s production. “Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script and was gonna direct,” he told Classic Pop magazine, “So we got the money, half-English, half-American and Matt fell out with the Americans.”
“They didn’t want to make the film that Matt wanted to make,” Ryder explained, “They wanted to make a film like all those other biopics, so it had to have a certain bit of this and a certain bit of that. So the American money went and it all went (messed) up really.”
As a result, Greenhalgh is seeking out new funding for the project. “Matt’s still working on getting it made,” Ryder confirmed, “so that’s where he is now. At the moment, he’s just looking for another lot of backers.”
Though this would mark his directorial debut, Greenhalgh is no stranger to a real-life musical subject. The screenwriter has previously worked on Nowhere Boy, which told the story of a young John Lennon, and Control, a profile of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis.
It’s been almost four years since filming was set to begin in Manchester in 2020. An updated timeline for the project is yet to be revealed.
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