At one point, Canada's Mike Myers had apparently snagged the lead role in the much-anticipated biopic on The Who drummer Keith Moon.
But Who lead singer Roger Daltrey, who is producing See Me, Feel Me: Keith Moon Naked For Your Pleasure, says the project is still waiting for a decent script before it goes ahead.
"I'm having terrible trouble getting the story into a script that isn't just 'Carry on Keith,' " said Daltrey, whose sporadic acting career most recently included playing five different parts on a CSI episode.
"And I won't let it be made until it's right. It's something I can do in a period of my life where perhaps singing has to take a back seat.
"So, I'm not worried about it. I just want it to be right. And I want whatever they do make of Keith Moon to be something of depth and quality that shows the complexity of the man."
Moon died at age 32 in 1978 from a drug overdose. So by the time the film finally gets made, Daltrey said Myers, now 46, will likely be too old for the part.
"I love Mike. He would have made a fabulous Keith Moon. It's just we couldn't find the script. It's no reflection on Mike.
"And the Moon vehicle, if I could have found the right script, would have been a perfect vehicle for his acting ability because he's an amazing actor.
"There's that one film (54) where you kind of get a glimpse of his potential as actor. I've long known that there's a really, really, really serious, serious actor in Mike Myers.
"And if I could have got the right script and Mike had done it, I'm sure it would have been nomination time. I mean, don't write him off, but unless I can get a script very quickly, he will be too old."
Daltrey blames the script problems on laziness.
"It's almost Shakespearean what I want to do with this thing. I'm always thinking about it. I sit down with people and I tell them scenes and they go, 'Wow, we gotta do that,' and then we get a script writer and they write the same old Carry on Keith lot because it's easy.
"Basically, they're all f---ing lazy, excuse my language."
JANE.STEVENSON@SUNMEDIA.CA
