Justin Timberlake: Elton John’s “No. 1″ Pick For Planned Biopic

Posted: January 3, 2012

Legendary songwriter and pop icon Elton John says that he has a big-screen biopic in the cards, and he knows just the guy he wants to see play himself on the silver screen: Justin Timberlake.

Said Sir Elton:

“I’ve got a wish list of people, [...] No. 1 on my wish list is Justin Timberlake, because he played me before in a David LaChapelle video of ‘Rocket Man’ and was superb.”

So what’s the 64-year old musician’s opinion on how the film should look and feel? Heavy-handed aesthetic and surreal style; more in step with Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!” than Todd Haynes’ post-modern Bob Dylan love-letter “I’m Not There” or Gus Van Sant’s gritty Kurt Cobain-inspired “Last Days”.

“It’s going to be a surreal look at my life, and not just a factual look at my life, [...] I just don’t want it to be a normal biopic because my life hasn’t been like that. And it only goes up to when I go into rehab in 1990. It starts with me going into rehab and ends when I come out.”

Though the planned film is still mostly in pre-production (and by pre-production, I mean Elton John’s imagination) there is indeed a script, penned by “Billy Elliot” playwright Lee Hall. Details on the director and the rest of the team are hush-hush, but singer John says that he’s “very excited” about the group of folks working on the picture.

So far there’s no news as to whether word of this has reached Timberlake’s camp or how open he would be to the idea. If it ever does, <Insert clever Rocket Man meets SexyBack quip here>.

What do you think? Could Timberlake pull it off? Do you think he’d do it?