File this under: “Wait, what?” According to Billboard, Martin Scorsese is attached to direct a biopic about iconic punk rockers The Ramones. At the tenth annual Johnny Ramone tribute event at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery this past Sunday, during a Q&A event that featured Johnny’s widow Linda, Duff McKagan, host Rob Zombie, and others, Ramones estate co-manager Jeff Jampol revealed that the film (and much more) was in the works.
“The 40th anniversary of the Ramones is coming up in 2016, that’s when the first album came out,” said Jampol. “So we have a lot of projects leading up to that. We’re looking at a documentary on the Ramones, we just secured a ton of footage, much of which has never been seen before,†he said. “It came from the Ramones on the road over the years in the Seventies and a little bit in the Eighties, from a gentleman who had shot them, his name is George Seminara.â€
No, he didn’t mispronounce Martin Scorsese; the documentary is just one of a few projects coming down the pipeline. Jampol revealed that they’re also prepping a feature film (to which Scorsese is reportedly attached), a book, and a theatrical play. All of this is possible because, with the passing of last surviving original member Tommy Ramone, the band members’ individual estates are reunited, so they can now put out remastered records and much more.
While the last on-screen portrayal of the Ramones had me wanting to be sedated, Scorsese seems like he could do justice to the long-haired rockers. With The Last Waltz and No Direction Home under his belt, I have no doubt that he is up to the task. That being said, don’t expect to see it anytime soon. Scorsese’s next project is Silence, an adaptation of the Shusako Endo novel about Jesuits priests facing persecution in Japan during the 17th century, starring Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Ken Watanabe. After that, he’s working on a 1970s NYC rock n’ roll series with Mick Jagger for HBO, and the recently announced Shutter Island television adaptation. Throw into the mix the long-rumored Sinatra project he’s had his eye on and the even longer-rumored The Irishman, which would reunite Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci. So…maybe for the Ramones 50th anniversary?
Are you excited to see Scorsese tackle the Ramones on the silver screen? Let us know in the comments below.
I was fourteen, on a school bus, when someone put a Ramones cassette in my yellow walkman – I cannot remember what album, but for a kid who was listening primarily to Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Hendrix, it was truly life changing. I have not really enjoyed any Scorsese feature since “Bringing Out the Dead,” (though I have not seen “Wolf of Wall Street”) – documentary, sure, I’m on board with that, since it is much easier to preserve a true since of the period. If he does the feature, we’ll probably end up with the “Gangs of New York”-style fairy tale “gritty” ’70’s. Not interested.