This year marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of seminal New York punk rockers The Ramones, and in another two years it'll be the 40th anniversary of their first album. There is, as you might expect, considerable activity beginning to bubble in the form of planned Ramones celebrations, not least of which, according to Billboard, is a biopic that Martin Scorsese may be attached to direct.
Billboard drop the information almost casually into a larger piece about last weekend's Johnny Ramone tribute at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, attended by Guns N'Roses' Duff McKagen and The Clash's Steve Jones, and hosted by Rob Zombie. There are no further details, but The Wrap have since chimed in with their own unnamed source confirming Scorsese's interest in the film.
There's no writer involved yet, and development is only at its earliest stages, but if the Scorsese intel isn't exactly solid, it's certainly plausible. The director's enthusiasm for the music of that era is evident in many of his soundtracks, and his early films like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver take place almost exactly where the Ramones were belting out their nascent gabba-gabba-hey.
Sadly, none of the original Ramones are still with us: drummer Tommy died in July, and singer Joey, guitarist Johnny and bass player Dee Dee all passed away between 2001 and 2004. The estate was split for a while between Johnny's wife Linda and Joey's brother Mickey, with disagreements between the two stymieing any future projects for a while.
Those differences, whatever they were, have now been ironed out, and a documentary, theatrical play, book and album remasters are all in the works along with the feature film. If Scorsese is involved as a director rather than just a producer, he certainly won't get to the Ramones at least until he's done with Silence, starring Liam Neeson, Ken Watanabe and Andrew Garfield and due into production early next year. He might be cutting it fine for the 40th celebrations then, but it sounds as if there'll be plenty to keep us distracted if he's late to the party.