Hollywood studios are circling a potential biopic of David Bowie after the memoir of Suzi Ronson, the stylist who helped create his Ziggy Stardust persona, was auctioned for adaptation.
Suzi Ronson said in an interview with The Sun that her autobiography, Me And Mr Jones: My Life With David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars, has been optioned with the hope it will become a major motion picture. Ronson told the newspaper the book — published last year — has been through an auction process but that no studio had yet completed a purchase.
Ronson, the wife of guitarist Mick Ronson, is credited with styling the spiky red feathered haircut that is widely associated with Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era. In the interview she said the memoir recounts episodes from Bowie's rise to fame, including an episode she described as a one-night encounter that occurred while he was married to his first wife, Angie. Ronson described the setting in personal terms in the interview and said she was first invited to do Angie's hair before being asked to style Bowie.
Representatives for Bowie’s estate and for prospective studios did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Sun carried Ronson’s account; the memoir itself is the source for the accounts she discussed.
The push for a film adaptation follows continued interest in previously unseen material from Bowie’s archive. Archivists working through the late singer’s papers discovered a previously unknown project described by Bowie as an "18th Century musical" and titled The Spectator. The material was found in a locked study and, according to archivists, only Bowie and his personal assistant had a key. The notes, some pinned to walls and left in place in his office in New York, were among items donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum and will be part of an expansive Bowie display.
The V&A’s David Bowie Centre, opening at V&A East Storehouse in Hackney Wick on Sept. 13, will present items from the collection, which the museum says comprises more than 90,000 objects. The display will include notebooks, handwritten lyrics for songs such as "Fame," "Heroes" and "Ashes to Ashes," stage costumes from the Ziggy Stardust period, musical instruments and other artefacts that document Bowie’s creative processes, including examples of the "cut up" writing method introduced to him by writer William Burroughs.
Bowie had spoken publicly about an interest in theatrical work. In 2002, he told BBC Radio 4’s John Wilson that writing for the theatre had been a long-held ambition and that he had envisaged work for a large audience.
Details about the potential film — including which studios have shown interest, prospective directors, screenwriters or casting plans — have not been confirmed. Ronson’s account and the auctioning of the memoir mark the latest developments in the continuing reassessment and public presentation of material from Bowie’s life and career since his death in 2016.
The V&A exhibition will be the most extensive public presentation of items from Bowie’s archive to date, according to museum statements, and will include the recently revealed notes for The Spectator alongside artefacts that illustrate his music, fashion, stagecraft and research. The museum and Bowie’s estate have said the archival material will enable new public and scholarly engagement with his work as both a musician and a cultural figure.