2004 06 06 The Observer - Ian Curtis biopics

The Observer

Rivals fight for Joy Division singer's biopic

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent

Sun 6 Jun 2004 11.54 BST First published on Sun 6 Jun 2004 11.54 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jun/06/arts.film

For a generation too old to grieve for the loss of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and too young to hold a lighter aloft in memory of the late Marc Bolan of T Rex, there is another name that beckons from the rock'n'roll hall of tragic fame.

Ian Curtis, the troubled frontman of Joy Division who committed suicide at the age of 23, is still mourned by his fans as the lost musical voice of an era. Now his legacy is to be re-examined not once, but twice, in rival films which are being developed around Curtis's life story.

The Macclesfield-born singer, who died in 1980, had posthumous international chart success with the song Love Will Tear Us Apart, but was most admired among those who followed the Manchester music scene, of which he was a leading light.

Curtis, whose singing style was melancholy and disturbing, joined the band after answering an advert for the role of lead vocalist in 1976. After Joy Division released their first album, Unknown Pleasures, the band, who were signed to Tony Wilson's Factory Records label, began to record sessions for John Peel's Radio 1 show.

Then, just as they prepared to leave for an American tour, Curtis was found hanging dead in his home. A copy of Iggy Pop's The Idiot was lying on the turntable of his stereo next to a note which read: 'At this moment, I wish I were dead. I just can't cope with any more.' The singer was epileptic and there was a suggestion at the time that his depression may have been the result of mishandled medication.

Band member Bernard Sumner said a year later that he would 'never be able to cope' with the loss. 'Ian's death will affect me now and it will affect me forever,' he added.

The surviving members of Joy Division - Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris - went on to form New Order with keyboard player Gillian Gilbert and had considerable commercial success.

Last week a US-based production company, Claraflora, was granted an exclusive option for film rights on the biography of the singer, Touching From a Distance, which was written by his widow, Deborah. The producers, Orian Williams, who made Shadow of the Vampire, and Todd Eckert, have agreed a deal which will involve the author as co-producer. They aim to start filming early next year and plan a screenplay that will films to tfocus on the talent that shaped Curtis's musical style, as much as on his sudden death.

'We're looking to give the world a truthful view of who Ian really was,' Eckert said. 'Given his suicide, there's so much concentration on the dark side of his life. We also want to concentrate on the energy that made people love Ian and Joy Division in the first place, while putting difficult elements such as his epilepsy into perspective.'

A second biopic is being developed by Amy Hobby, the American producer of the quirky comedy Secretary. Hobby will be working in London with Neal Weisman, a friend of Wilson's and of New Order. The soundtrack has been placed in the hands of Moby, the New York-based musician who had a worldwide hit with his album Play.

'Ian Curtis was a tragic romantic in the classic sense of the word,' Weisman said at last month's Cannes Film Festival. 'He always thought he would be famous as some kind of poet and die by his mid-twenties. And that's what happened.'

The two competing projects follow the success of the recent Michael Winterbottom film, 24 Hour Party People, which focused on the Manchester music boom and the Factory Records story. Tony Wilson was played by Steve Coogan, while actor Sean Harris played Ian Curtis. Neither of the new biopics have yet cast the central role.