Happy Mondays and Black Grape front man Shaun Ryder’s life is set to be made into a Hollywood film starring Jack O’Connell as the ‘Madchester’ music legend.
I’m told Maxine Peake, 45, will co-star star playing Shaun’s mother Linda and Mancunian actress Holliday Grainger, 31, has landed the role of Shaun’s wife Joanne.
Jack’s working class, Catholic upbringing and his troubled background as a teenager has striking parallels with Shaun’s own back story, making him the obvious lead choice.
The script will be written by award winning writer Matt Greenhalgh who penned Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool and is behind several other rock star biopics including Control and Nowhere Boy.
(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
I’m told the film will take the form of a “Love story” set against all the odds.
The source adds: “It will also focus on Shaun’s struggles at school where he battled with dyslexia and ADHD.
“The producers are determined to approach Shaun’s story from a different angle in contrast to the recent movies that have been made about Elton John and Freddie Mercury. It’s going to be unique.”
(Image: Getty)
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The script will draw on Shaun’s biography Twisting My Melon where he tells of his days as a drug dealer in Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub before the Happy Mondays were propelled into stardom.
The 25 years that followed are a rollercoaster of highs and lows in which Shaun famously walked away from a three million pound record deal, telling bemused band members that he was “just nipping out for a take away.”
Within six months the star was in a debtor’s court fighting off creditors.
(Image: Rex Features)
Following the break up of the original Happy Mondays, he made his comeback with new band Black Grape.
In all he has six children. In 2010 Shaun married childhood sweetheart Joanne with whom he has two children.
I’m told the man that put the Mad into the Manchester music scene is said to be “Mad for it” and cant wait to see his life on the silver screen.
