Back in 2014, the Oscar-nominated team behind The Voorman Problem announced that it had begun development of an unauthorized Morrissey biopic called Steven. And now, in 2016 casting director Shaheen Baig—who also casted Ian Curtis in the acclaimed Joy Division biopic Control, fun fact—has tapped British actor Jack Lowden to play the iconic Smiths frontman.
Lowden recently appeared in the BBC adaptation of War and Peace, and now he’s charged with playing Steven Patrick Morrissey—the man before the mononym. Director Mark Gill said in a release, “The film covers Morrissey’s life pre-Smiths and is more of a portrait than a conventional biopic. It’s as much a film for non-Morrissey fans as it is for die-hard devotees, but I can’t deny that this is a love letter to Steven Patrick Morrissey and the dark satanic mills of Manchester.”
Amidst tour cancellations and murder allegations, Morrissey could really use a love letter, and it seems like Lowden could be the right man for the job. Lowden won an Olivier Award for 2013’s Ghosts, and he’s currently in talks with Christopher Nolan about a major role in his upcoming World War II film, Dunkirk.
Steven will be Gill’s feature-length directorial debut, but some familiar faces will also join him on-set. The director’s Voorman Problem partner, Baldwin Li, will produce the film alongside Control producer Orian Williams.
Williams alluded that Steven will explore Morrissey as a person in order to better understand his music. He explained that the script, “looks inside the young mind of Steven Patrick Morrissey and captures a glimpse of what he observed and channeled in order to give us the future music of his thoughts, not only with The Smiths but his solo work as well.”
Do you think Lowden is the man for the job? Let us know in the comments below.
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HT: Deadline
IMAGE: Caligvla/Wikicommons; BBC
