The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets report that Danny Boyle, director of such movies as Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and more recently Yesterday, will now try his hand at creating a limited TV series about the (in)famous Sex Pistols, probably one of the most influential bands of the ’70s punk era.
The series will be shown on the Disney-owned FX channel and will go under the title Pistol. The series script is based on the 2017 memoir by the band’s guitarist Steve Jones titled Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol.
The show will center around Jones’ journey from his West London council estates home to the iconic Sex boutique owned by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, an epicenter of early punk culture. From there, Boyle will trace, as some call it, the relatively short but furious rise and fall of Sex Pistols.
Moulin Rouge! co-writer Craig Pearce created the series and penned the teleplays alongside Frank Cottrell Boyce (Sometimes Always Never). Toby Wallace (Babyteeth) is on board as Jones, while Anson Boon (1917) will play cantankerous Sex Pistols frontman John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon. Rounding out the band is Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) as legendary bassist Sid Vicious, Jacob Slater as drummer Paul Cook, and Fabien Frankel (The Serpent) as original bassist Glen Matlock.
Speaking about the series, Boyle had to say the following:
“Imagine breaking into the world of The Crown and Downton Abbey with your mates and screaming your songs and your fury at all they represent. This is the moment that British society and culture changed forever. It is the detonation point for British street culture, where ordinary young people had the stage and vented their fury and their fashion — and everyone had to watch & listen, and everyone feared them or followed them. The Sex Pistols. At its center was a young charming illiterate kleptomaniac — a hero for the times — Steve Jones, who became in his own words, the 94th greatest guitarist of all time. This is how he got there.”
