Lenny Abrahamson is set to take the helm of “Frank,” a story written by “The Men Who Stare At Goats” scribes Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan about a musical genius and his band in the 1980’s.
The script landed on the 2009 Brit List and is inspired by Ronson’s own musical experiences with Frank Sidebottom, the alter ego of Chris Sievey and famous for his oversized, cartoon, fiberglass head. Ronson had previously chronicled his time with Sidebottom in an article for British paper The Guardian, but promises to have “massively changed it” for the script.
“Without giving too much away,” Ronson further explains to HeyUGuys. “I wrote that article in about two days, and it took about a year to write the film, so it’s a lot better, but there is a narrative structure, even in that article. You’ve got the fairy tale bit of getting up on stage and being invited to join the band, and then you’ve got the band collapsing because they try to become too mainstream, too professional.“
While we’re not well-versed with Abrahamson’s filmography, his 2004 pic “Adam & Paul” recently took equal top spot for the best Irish film of the last decade alongside Steve McQueen’s excellent “Hunger,” courtesy of the Dublin Film Critics Circle, which is certainly a huge compliment. Add to that the interesting character leading Ronson and Straughan’s script and it’s definitely an intriguing project developing.
“Frank” is being backed by Film4, who also are behind banner films such as Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go” and Kevin MacDonald’s “Eagle Of The Ninth.” Both of which are currently in post-production, and two of our highly anticipated releases for this year.
"Adam & Paul" is great. A tragi-comedy about junkies looking for a fix, its dark, funny, moving – theres nothing else quite like it. Abrahamson's follow-up, the Dardennes-like "Garage" is excellent too.