John Lennon in 1961 (Evening Standard/Getty Images)
John Lennon in 1961 (Evening Standard/Getty Images)Nowhere Boy, the 2009 John Lennon biopic focusing on the legendary Beatle‘s volatile teenage years, may be headed to the stage.
Deadline reports that the AF Media Creative and Aged in Wood production companies have acquired the rights to turn the film into a musical.
As in the movie, the stage production is expected to focus on Lennon’s pre-Beatles band The Quarrymen and his relationship with his Aunt Mimi and his mother, Julia, who abandoned her son when he was a child, but later came back into his life, only to be killed by a car.
The Nowhere Boy film starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lennon and Kristen Scott Thomas as Mimi.
AF Creative Media’s Brian and Dayna Lee say the musical, which is in the early stages of development, will incorporate songs by African-American artists who inspired Lennon and the Liverpool, U.K., music scene at that time.
Like the film, the stage production will feature classic rock ‘n’ roll tunes of the late 1950s, but may not include any original Lennon compositions.
Brian Lee says the producers are hoping the musical will open in the U.K. sometime “in the next few years.”
“We’ve just secured the rights of the film,” he says, “and as a team we’ll be traveling to London this summer, trying to figure out the right person to bring this narrative to life.”
The Lees haven’t discussed the project with Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
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