Sir Elton John will see his life story told on the big screen in a biopic penned by his Billy Elliot collaborator, bookwriter Lee Hall. The six-time Grammy Award winner told BBC Radio that his won’t be an everyday story.
"It will be more of a fantasy, Moulin Rouge type of stuff," John told BBC Radio 2. "Obviously, it's not going to be your normal, run-of-the-mill film. My life’s been so surreal, from buying a football club to God knows what."
John and Hall first joined forces to adapt the 1999 Oscar-nominated film version of Billy Elliot, for which Hall had written the screenplay, into a stage musical. The show went on to win 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The pair is rumored to be collaborating again on an upcoming musical adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Before Billy Elliot, John had also penned music for Broadway's The Lion King and Aida. Hall was most recently represented on Broadway with The Pitmen Painters, an experience he wrote about for Broadway.com, and he is also adapting a screenplay of War Horse for Steven Spielberg.
No details of the project have been announced, but John, who is a new father with partner David Furnish, will certainly be keeping busy in the immediate future. The pop icon is performing on a track of Glee star Matthew Morrison’s upcoming album, and if Morrison has his way, John will also guest on the show itself, playing a love interest to Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester.