{"id":486319,"date":"2019-05-26T11:50:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T17:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=840543"},"modified":"2019-05-26T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T17:50:04","slug":"elton-john-pens-article-detailing-biopics-journey-to-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/elton-john-pens-article-detailing-biopics-journey-to-big-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Elton John Pens Article Detailing Biopic\u2019s Journey to Big Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elton John<\/a> detailed Rocketman<\/a><\/em>\u2018s long journey<\/a> to the big screen in his own words in a lengthy article John penned for the Guardian<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole experience of watching someone else pretend to be you on screen, of seeing things you remember happening again in front of your eyes, is a very weird, disconcerting one, like having an incredibly vivid dream,\u201d John wrote of the biopic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the story of how I ended up in a cinema, crying my eyes out at the sight of my family 60 years ago, is a long and convoluted one. And it begins, naturally enough, with a naked transgender woman with sparks flying out of her vagina.\u201d<\/p>\n

John then credited model and performance artist Amanda Lepore \u2013 who starred in the aforementioned David LaChappelle-directed short films shown for John\u2019s Las Vegas residency \u2013 with sparking the singer\u2019s own interest in making a film about his life. \u201cIf you were going to make a film about me, that would be the way to do it,\u201d John wrote.<\/p>\n

John \u2013 who writes that he turned down the titular role of Harold in Hal Ashby\u2019s classic Harold and Maude<\/em> in 1971 \u2013 then discussed the arduous behind-the-scenes process of getting Rocketman greenlit, with directors like LaChappelle and actors like Tom Hardy and Justin Timberlake at one point interested in the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating. But I just haven\u2019t led a PG-13 rated life,\u201d John wrote. \u201cI didn\u2019t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the 70s and 80s, so there didn\u2019t seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I\u2019d quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon\u2019s Bible for company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Rocketman<\/em> found its Elton John in actor Taron Egerton<\/a>. \u201cI gave my diaries to Taron to read when he took on the lead role in the film,\u201d John wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to my house, we had a takeaway curry and chatted, and I let him see them. I knew Taron was the right man when I heard him sing \u2018Don\u2019t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.\u2019 I thought it was really important that whoever played me didn\u2019t lip-sync, I wanted them to actually sing the songs, and Taron had already sung \u2018I\u2019m Still Standing\u2019 brilliantly in the animated film Sing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to bringing his life to the big screen, John will also employ the written word to document his career in the upcoming memoir Me<\/em><\/a>, due out this October.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elton John detailed Rocketman\u2018s long journey to the big screen in his own words in a lengthy article John penned for the Guardian. \u201cThe whole experience of watching someone else pretend to be you on screen, of seeing things you remember happening again in front of your eyes, is a very weird, disconcerting one, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-486319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 00:24:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}