Elton John helped make his own biopic, ‘Rocketman.’ That actually made it more honest than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’

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The film about John, which opens Friday, benefits from a living subject willing to bare all.

Before taking on the role of Elton John in “Rocketman,” Taron Egerton met with Jamie Foxx and Rami Malek, who played Ray Charles and Freddie Mercury in musical biopics. By Tim Greiving May 30 at 10:57 AM “Rocketman” is the first big-screen adaptation of the life and music of singer-songwriter legend, Sir Elton John. The film, which opens Friday, was executive produced by . . . Sir Elton John.

“And then I touched on something that was maybe a little bit darker, in terms of his own personal battles and demons,” Fletcher said. “And he was really open, and said, ‘Oh, let me tell you about this!’ — and spoke very candidly. And he didn’t know me!” That approach heeds the advice of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Oren Moverman, who wrote “I’m Not There” and “Love & Mercy” — unconventional portraits of Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson, respectively. Both artists had the power to squash or censor the final products, but they essentially gave Moverman free rein. His modus operandi: Simply listen to the music.

“What makes me excited,” he added, “is because their music is a creative invention, the movie can be an invention.”Even when inventive, though, these films have to present unflattering or unpleasant facts about their subjects — from addiction to adultery — if they’re to be honest. Moverman always meets with his subjects first and asks them what they’re afraid of having included, not to whitewash their past, he emphasized, but to respect the artist and to get at the real truth of their life.

Hackford knows he was lucky to receive such faith. But he also argues that it’s actually worse when the subject is dead — “because the legacy is usually controlled by children, or lawyers, or people in the estate,” he said. “And they never want to tell the truth.”

Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)

 

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To be fair, Freddie was otherwise unavailable.

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