Joe Strummer Biopic On The Way

The Clash’s late great frontman Joe Strummer is going to be the subject of a new biopic.

British movie company Film4 is shepherding the project, entitled Joe Public. Screendaily.com reports that screenwriter Paul Viragh, who wrote the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, will handle script duties.

No one has been cast in the juicy lead role yet.

Strummer, who sadly passed away in 2002, has already been the subject of two documentaries: Julien Temple’s 2007 film Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten and Don Letts’s more recent project Strummerville, which premiered at SXSW this year.

Strummerville is also the name of a foundation set up by friends and family of Joe Strummer to help create new opportunities for aspiring musicians.

Joining Viragh on Joe Public as producers are Simon Halfon and Damian Jones; reports say the biopic is still in the development phase, so it should be awhile before we see the life of Joe Strummer played out on the big screen.

Surely at the heart of the story will be Strummer’s time with The Clash, the legendary punk group he co-founded in 1976. The Clash split in 1985, but Strummer kept busy, especially with his band The Mescaleros.

The Clash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

In addition to being a musician, Strummer also found time to flex his acting skill, appearing in movies by Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch.

Strummer died from a heart attack shortly before Christmas in 2002.

Who should be cast to play Joe Strummer?