The biopic sex & drugs & rock & roll didn't get much traction when it was released in the United States; though it featured a tremendous performance by Andy Serkis, an actor known better playing motion-capture creatures for Peter Jackson, it was telling the life story of punk musician Ian Dury, a guy not nearly as well known in the U.S. as he is in Britain. Happily for director Mat Whitecross, though, the film was seen by at least enough people to get his next effort off the ground. According to Variety he's set to direct Ashes, which will star a whole host of great British talent, including Ray Winstone, Jim Sturgess and Lesley Manville.
It's described only as a "contemporary noir thriller" and there's no specific details on who will play which roles, but I don't really need to know more. Both Manville and Sturgess had great, underappreciated performances last year, Manville in Mike Leigh's Another Year and Sturgess in The Way Back. And Winstone, who had a role in sex & drugs & rock & roll as Ian Dury's father, is pretty much a requirement any time you're assembling a large British cast. Also on board are Jodie Whittaker, seen in SXSW hit Attack the Block, and Luke Evans; weirdly enough, one of the major contributors to the film's $8 million budget is the band Coldplay. Production starts at the beginning of next week on the Isle of Man.
