Martin Scorsese Tipped For Ramones Biopic

Legendary auteur Martin Scorsese has been pegged as being attached to a forthcoming biopic about the life and work of incendiary punk icons the Ramones, following the tenth annual death-day celebration in honour of Johnny Ramone.

The film forms one of many different ways the formerly-at-loggerheads estates of deceased Ramones Johnny and Joey, in conjunction with the estates of fellow departed members Tommy and Dee Dee – now all uniformly being looked after as the “Ramones” estate by co-managers Jeff Jampol and Dave Frey – are looking to pay ongoing respects to the original punk-rock icons, and marks the first real period in several years that the interests of individual members are being considered in a collective sense.

The shake-up comes after several years of tense arrangements whereby Johnny’s wife Linda held control over half of the band’s estate, with Joey’s brother Mickey looking after the frontman’s half. However, in an interview with Billboard, Linda explains that all parties are on the same page, moving forward:

“It’s always been about the entire band except I had Johnny’s half and Joey’s brother Mickey had Joey’s half. And since we weren’t speaking, he did more Joey and I did more Johnny,” Linda said. “We can move on now and do Ramones cause me and Mickey now are friends, so that’s cool. I was happy he came [to the Johnny memorial] last night.

“As we say every day now, ‘We’re all one big happy family.’”

Jampol – who is also the estate handler for the likes of the Doors, Janis Joplin, Tupac Shakur and Otis Redding, among others – says that the Scorsese-helmed biopic will serve alongside a documentary, a play and a book as potential projects to see the light of day in honour of preserving the iconic act’s ongoing legacy.

“The 40th anniversary of the Ramones is coming up in 2016, that’s when the first album came out,” he explained. “So we have a lot of projects leading up to that. We’re looking at a documentary on the Ramones, we just secured a ton of footage, much of which has never been seen before.

“It came from the Ramones on the road over the years in the Seventies and a little bit in the ‘80s, from a gentleman who had shot them; his name is George Seminara.

“You’ll see a book coming, which is not a biographical book so much, but a story of the band’s formation and those first few records and that craziness that happened,” Jampol continued. “It’ll be a combination of prose, photographs and memorabilia and posters, just kind of documenting the scene. The Ramones were the first punk band and they started the punk movement.”

Although details of the cinematic adaptation are sketchy at best at this stage, and Scorsese, 71, isn't exactly short on work for the next few years as it is, even if it wasn’t on the table, you wouldn’t be able to dodge Ramones-mania as their “proper” 40th anniversary (of their first album, not formation) draws ever-nearer if you tried.

“You’re gonna see some really interesting combinations of music and new music and remastered music and apparel,” Jampol told Billboard.

“As far as the apparel goes, and really everything, as a company, for me, authenticity is the foundation of everything. And luckily, when you have a really genius artist like the Ramones you don’t have to spin it. It is what it is and what it is is a beautiful moment in time that sparked a revolution in music and in fashion.

“So you look at ’76, when the Ramones first album came out, and that really sparked that brand new wave of what I call the American rock and roll wardrobe, which is jeans, white T-shirt, leather jacket and sneakers.”