Jack O’Connell to play Shaun Ryder in biopic

British actor Jack O’connell is reportedly in talks to play unruly frontman Shaun Ryder in a new Happy Mondays biopic.
According to Variety, O’Connell is in advanced negotiations to play the British indie icon in Twisting My Melon, a new film about the band, who emerged as popular stars of Manchester, England’s 1980s music scene before drug problems derailed them.
Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs is said to be lined up to play Shaun’s dad, Derek, Holliday Grainger is in line to play Shaun’s girlfriend, and The Theory of Everything star Maxine Peake is set to take on the role of his long-suffering mother.
The project has been developed by Matt Greenhalgh, the writer of John Lennon drama Nowhere Boy and the Ian Curtis biopic Control. He has co-written the screenplay with Andrew Knott and William Ash, and will direct and produce the film as his feature debut.
The Happy Mondays became indie icons during the ‘Madchester’ music craze of the late ’80s and early ’90s and had hits with their funk and dance tracks Step On, Kinky Afro, and Loose Fit.
However, Shaun and his best pal Bez, the band’s dancer, became as notorious for their drug-fuelled antics as their music, and the group fell apart in 1993.
The 57-year-old singer has now reinvented himself as a popular TV star in the U.K., winning over fans with an eccentric 2010 appearance on reality show, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! – during which he was bitten by a snake.