He was no stranger to the big screen during his lifetime, working with film-makers such as Alex Cox, Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki. Now Joe Strummer of the Clash looks set to be the subject of his own movie after the French film-maker and actor Julie Delpy signed to direct a biopic titled The Right Profile, reports Variety.
Delpy's film will focus on Strummer's famous 1982 disappearance from the spotlight, a stunt planned by the band's manager Bernie Rhodes to help boost flagging ticket sales for a Scottish tour which ended up with the singer and guitarist deciding to go missing . Uncertain about the subterfuge, Strummer travelled to France, where he is said to have taken part in the Paris marathon in April 1982 after a training regime consisting of drinking 10 pints of beer the night before the race. The Clash began to break up a year later with the departure of Mick Jones from the band, and finally split for good in 1986.
The Right Profile is the title of a song which appeared on the Clash's best known album, 1979's London Calling. The film is not the first biopic of Strummer to have been touted: Film4 was reportedly working on a film with the working title of Joe Public. Paul Viragh, who wrote the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll was in charge of the screenplay , but the movie is not on the British production house's current list of forthcoming productions .
Strummer died suddenly in December 2002 from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. The Clash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just a month later. The musician has been the subject of two documentaries in the intervening period: Julien Temple's Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten and Don Letts' Strummerville , which focuses mainly on the Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music charity set up by his wife Lucinda following her husband's death.
Delpy recently wrapped production on 2 Days in New York, the sequel to her 2007 comedy 2 Days in Paris, in which she also starred opposite Adam Goldberg. The followup sees her sharing 48 hours with new beau Chris Rock. Delpy is also reportedly planning a second sequel to Richard Linklater's 1995 much-loved indie romance Before Sunrise, following 2004's Before Sunset.
