From an industry site comes this:-
Rock photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn is preparing for an early 2006 shoot for his first feature film, tentatively titled Control, about the life of the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.
Producers Orian Williams and Todd Eckert of US-based Claraflora first announced the project in January and Corbijn tells ScreenDaily.com that they are currently nailing down financing and starting the casting process.
Corbijn expects to shoot Control for up to two months in early 2006 in Manchester, Macclesfield, and surrounding areas. Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, himself a mythical figure in the Manchester music scene (as captured in Michael Winterbottom’s 24-Hour Party People), will co-produce as will Ian Curtis’s widow, Deborah Curtis.
Deborah Curtis’s book Touching From a Distance is the basis for the script (by Matt Greenhalgh), but Corbijn adds, “It’s broader than that.” He adds, “It’s not a Joy Division film, it’s a film about Ian as an artist.”
No actors have been confirmed yet, and Corbijn admits that that finding an actor to play such an idolized figure as Curtis is quite a challenge. “A lot of people have expressed interest but we haven’t found the right people yet,” he says. Corbijn reveals that several American actors have expressed interest in playing Curtis, but the director says simply, “that would be wrong.”
Unlike his music video work, Corbijn doesn’t plan to serve as his own cinematographer. He does have concrete ideas about the look of the film already: “It will be shot on film, most likely in black and white,” he reveals. “Most people’s memories of that era are in black and white. Joy Division specifically seems like such a black-and-white band.” (Corbijn used B&W images in his famous 1988 video for Joy Division’s Atmosphere that featured hooded monks carrying a giant photograph of Ian Curtis on a deserted beach.)
As for the sounds of Control (the title was inspired by Joy Division’s classic She’s Lost Control), the film-makers have the rights to Joy Division’s music. The band’s successor New Order is also involved.
The subject is close to Corbijn’s heart: as a young, music-obsessed photographer in 1979, he moved from Holland to England to be closer to Joy Division, his favourite band. Two weeks later he convinced the group to let him do a photo shoot, despite his lack of credentials.
That 1979 photo can be seen on Corbijn’s new Director’s Label DVD, devoted to his career so far. The DVD includes several dozen of his award-winning music videos for artists such as U2, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Metallica, and Nick Cave, along with commentaries and a 40-minute documentary about Corbijn.”
Corbijn will be doing the keynote discussion at RESFEST London (at the National Film Theatre) on Saturday, October 1.
