After decades of talking about it, Roger Daltrey has revealed he finished a script for a Keith Moon biopic.
“I just finished a script, and I’m hoping to do my biopic of Keith within the next couple of years,” The Who singer told Vulture.
“I’m very pleased with the script. I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was. He had so much talent, that boy, but he became out of control for a lot of reasons. Mostly for lack of discipline. But once the drugs kick in, usually that disappears, doesn’t it?”
The Who in 1971: John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.
He also teased that he’s been eyeing an actor, but kept mum on who it is.
“I’ve got an actor in mind who’s a role model. He might be too old, but then again, Keith looked 50 when he died. He was 32, but he looked 54. I think the actor is about 40 now,” Daltrey said.
“I don’t want to jinx it and say his name. But there’s an actor who I’ve seen and when I look at him I go, ‘God, it’s Moon.’ It’s all to do with the eyes. The eyes are all important. You virtually wouldn’t need to say any dialogue because you could read it in his eyes. I mean, that’s a bit much, but you know what I mean. You can read so much in the face of Keith. He had such an incredible vibrancy. I got involved when Mike Myers wanted to play him. We were trying to get the film off the ground. I think Mike, when he was younger, would’ve made a fabulous Keith. It’s a shame it never happened. I’m driven by this project. It came to me in a dream 30 years ago.”
Last year it was reported that a biopic about the drummer, who died of an accidental overdose in 1978, was going to begin shooting in the summer, but no further information surfaced. At the time, guitarist Pete Townshend shared his true feelings about the film.
“When you talk about it as a Keith Moon biopic, it’s going to be the first semi-fictionalised, dramatised Who story,” the guitarist said at the time.
“It will be a Who biopic. Somebody is going to have to play Pete Townshend. I’ve read some very, very varied opinions about what my relationship was like with Keith. I view it one way, and other people view it another way. I certainly was never at war with Keith but neither was I his puppy.”
