The Who singer Roger Daltrey is working on a film based on the life of his late bandmate Keith Moon.
The 69-year-old musician has resurrected a script written many years ago by John Lahr – who was responsible for the 1978 biography of playwright Joe Orton – and is hoping to get the project in development soon.
Daltrey wanted Robert Downey Jr. wanted to play the hellraising drummer but currently has no idea who will bring his friend to life on screen.
He told the new issue of Q magazine: "I’m back on it, and I’m back to the very first draft of the script , which I’ve always loved and which was written by John Lahr. I don’t know who is going to play Keith, but it has to become someone new. Twenty years ago I had Robert Downey Jr. lined up. I had the whole damn thing down, but the script was only 60 percent there, and all people wanted at the time was ‘Carry On Keith’."
Moon died in 1978 at the age of 32 from an accidental overdose of clomethiazole pills, which he had been prescribed to help him beat effects of alcohol withdrawal.
Daltrey – who is set to perform a series of concerts with Pete Townshend this year for what is being billed as The Who’s farewell tour – also admitted he often thinks about his other late bandmate, bassist John Entwistle, and misses his friend’s humour.
However, the ‘My Generation’ singer does concede that Entwistle’s death from a heart attack in 2002 aged 57 – one day before The Who’s 2002 American tour was due to kick-off – was very "rock ‘n’ roll".
The bass guitarist passed away in a hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas after going to bed with stripper Alycen Rowse following a night out which had involved cocaine use.
Daltrey said: "John crops up in my thoughts all the time. I wish I’d recorded some of our conversations, because John would say very little but every 15 minutes there’d be one priceless comedy line. It was such a rock ‘n’ roll death, though, wasn’t it? Two lines of coke and a bird in the Hard Rock! He was probably eating a hamburger as well, though where he was eating it from, who knows?"
Roger Daltrey working on Keith Moon biopic
