Weird news is percolating, and the gist of it is that Elijah Wood will be playing Iggy Pop in a biopic about the one-time front man of The Stooges. As Quint from Ain’t It Cool points out, this isn’t exactly that shocking from Elijah, who has been carefully trying to not get trapped in his Lord of the Rings character. It’s working – this month alone he has two very different, and very different from Frodo, movies coming out. In Green Street Hooligans, he’s a brawler. In Everything is Illuminated (one of the best movies I have seen this year), he’s a neurotic Jew. But can he be James Osterberg?
In my humble opinion, no. I’ve met both of these guys and the discrepancy is startling. It would be like having Sammo Hung play Abe Lincoln. Of course, this would explain what Elijah said in a recent interview at Rope of Silicon: “There may be a music biography coming up, something that scares the shit out of me. It’s someone I am extremely passionate about, and yeah… That’s coming up, but that’s way in the future.”
Of course this may all be nonsense. The idea that Iggy Pop is the subject of Woods’ film really comes out of a tabloid news report, not the best place to get your news. Still, it’s plausible that this is happening.
Honestly, while I can’t imagine Wood pulling this off I would love to see him prove me wrong. So Elijah, if you are going to be playing Iggy – you have my best wishes. Now go roll around in some broken glass.