Duran Duran’s Roger Taylor reveals the band are working on Hollywood biopic and recruiting rising stars to play them
FORTY years after Duran Duran sang Girls On Film, it’s Simon Le Bon and Co who are being captured for the big screen.
I can reveal the British new wave group are working on a biopic about their incredible career, just as they prepare to score their highest charting album in almost four decades tomorrow.
Simon, Nick Rhodes and John and Roger Taylor are all involved in talks to make the Hollywood movie which will chart the group from their formation in the late Seventies, their hedonistic days of success in the Eighties and then the eventual reunion of their most famous line-up in 2001.
In an exclusive interview, drummer Roger said: “It’s something that is under discussion. It is being discussed and we’ve had different scripts and ideas put forward.
“We haven’t quite decided on the right one yet. But there are things in development so we will see where they go. We would love to do something like that and I think something will happen in the next few years.”
Asked about which actors could be involved, he continued: “I would want a really good Hollywood actor to play me.
‘The right vibe’
“It would have to be someone who’s on the cusp of their career, who’s got the right look, the right vibe and that’s going to take some time to find I think.”
It follows the success of the Freddie Mercury film Bohemian Rhapsody, and then Rocketman about Sir Elton John — who Duran Duran are battling in the charts this week.
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The group released their first album in six years, Future Past, last Friday and last night it was just hundreds of copies behind Elton’s latest record The Lockdown Sessions.
But whether they manage to clinch the No1 or not tomorrow, there is more to come from Duran Duran following their reunion two decades ago. Roger said: “I cannot believe it has all gone so quickly, it has flown by.
“I think I just saw it as a reunion and reunions can be short-lived, often it is hard for people to bed in together again. But the four of us just seem to have something special.
“We don’t really discuss too far into the future. As long as we stay healthy and relatively sane — which we will, we’re all in a good place now — I can see it continuing for quite a while.”
ANNE-MARIE DOLLS UP FOR KISS
I HAD to do a double-take when I first clapped eyes on Anne-Marie‘s Halloween costume.
The Kiss My (Uh-Oh) singer looked almost unrecognisable as she transformed into a scary doll for this year’s Kiss FM Haunted House Party.
With blonde pigtail-plaits tied up with black bows, she performed some of her biggest hits at the virtual bash.
Mixing up her look further, she teamed a pink dress with a pair of quirky black-and-white, long-sleeved gloves.
Anne-Marie recently told me she is taking a break from releasing new music, after the success earlier this year of emotional second album Therapy.
Hopefully by the time she returns she will be back to her happy- go-lucky self.
MO TROUBLE FOR MOMOA
HE’S had a rough old ride on the set of Aquaman 2 after admitting he had sustained multiple injuries during filming.
But now Jason Momoa has taken another blow, after testing positive for Covid while filming in Hertfordshire.
Insiders have revealed the Hollywood superstar is now isolating and film bosses are hoping they can stop any further outbreaks on set.
A source said: “Jason is fine luckily and is now isolating after getting a positive test. But it’s a real headache for the film’s bosses, who are now worrying about having to delay their tight filming schedule.
“Of course the safety of everyone working on the film is the most important thing and everyone is tested regularly.
“They are hoping this is a one-off and that they can work around Jason and continue filming on the production. Everyone is wishing him a speedy recovery and they’re looking forward to having him back on set.”
Jason and the Aquaman team had been shooting it at Leavesden Studios, in Herts.
Xquo here He revealed filming for the second instalment of the film, three years after the first was released, had been a lot harder.
Jason said last week: “I’m getting old. I messed up my eyes. I just got something in it that kind of cut it up, and then I’ve got to get surgery, I have a hernia, I’ve got ribs out. I’m just getting beat up.
“I just kind of give it. I love my job and I get a little too excited, then the age thing, you know, I’m an ageing superhero right now.”
Sam in the Hot Seat
BRITNEY SPEARS’ fiance SAM ASGHARI has had his big break after being cast in upcoming film Hot Seat.
The actor, who met Brit while starring in the video for her 2016 single Slumber Party, has boarded the action-thriller alongside Hollywood veteran Mel Gibson.
The movie will follow a former hacker, played by Mel, who has to break into a high-level banking institution after a bomb is planted in his office
TEIGEN’S TAKEN THE PLUNGE
CHRISSY TEIGEN took the plunge as she made her first appearance since this summer’s Twitter scandal.
The model wife of singer John Legend had stepped back after abusive tweets she sent as a teenager came to light.
Chrissy apologised for being a “troll” and kept a low profile until Tuesday when she put on a revealing dress to promote her cookbook Cravings.
Better to stir the pot in the kitchen than in real life, eh?
DANI’S ‘TIE’ TO SAMMY
DANI DYER has broken her silence on her ex, Sammy Kimmence, who was jailed in July for scamming pensioners out of thousands, saying they will always have a “relationship”.
The Love Island winner, who has an eight-month-old son Santiago with him, said: “You are never really friends with your ex-boyfriend.
“It’s a little bit different in my situation. Obviously I will always have a relationship with Santi’s dad but it’s different when you’ve got children.
“You’re tied together by blood and you’re always going to have a relationship there. But there’s still a line.”
She made the remarks on her Spotify podcast Sorted With The Dyers. On it, her dad, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer, revealed: “I’ve cut a lot of toxic people out of my life. They had to go.
“I just wanted ‘yes’ people around me . . . But it’s very shallow. It’s not real and it’s not authentic.”
EMAs' performers
MALUMA, Kim Petras and Eurovision winners Maneskin are the first performers announced for next month’s MTV EMAs.
They will take to the stage at the ceremony in Budapest on November 14, with the event being shown live on MTV here.
Abba’s music Voyage over
ABBA have devastated fans by confirming they will be retiring from the studio following their comeback album Voyage.
The Swedish group will put out their first record in 40 years next Friday, but Benny Andersson said: “This is it. It’s got to be, you know.”
Referring to when he, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstad went their separate ways four decades ago, he continued: “I didn’t say, ‘This is it’ in 1982. But I can tell you now: This is it.”
Two new songs, Don’t Shut Me Down and I Still Have Faith In You, will appear in their digital show Abba Voyage at the Abba Arena in East London next year.
WES SO LUCCY
WES NELSON is secretly dating the daughter of a tobacco tycoon. He has been seeing stunning swimwear model Lucciana Beynon for several months and she inspired his recent track Say Nothing.
Referring to the Aussie, who now lives in London, he sings: “Baby dressed to the nines. She a ten, no, really.”
Lucciana’s mum is a former Miss World and her dad Travers is MD and heir to the FreeChoice tobacco empire.
A source said: “Wes can’t believe his luck. Lucciana is incredibly attractive and really fun to be around. She super close to her dad Travers and luckily he’s a big fan of Wes’s.”