Rocketman (film)

Rocketman is a 2019 biographical musical film based on the life of musician Elton John. Directed by Dexter Fletcher and written by Lee Hall, it stars Taron Egerton as John, with Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas Howard. The film follows John's early days as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to his musical partnership with Bernie Taupin. The film is titled after John's 1972 song "Rocket Man".

An Elton John biopic had been in development for almost two decades, with the project going through studios including Walt Disney Studios and Focus Features, directors including Michael Gracey, and actors including Tom Hardy and Justin Timberlake. After creative differences with Focus halted an initial production start in 2014, John took the project to Paramount Pictures, with Egerton and Fletcher signing on in April 2018. Principal photography began in August 2018 and was completed later that year.

Rocketman premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2019, and was released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2019. It is scheduled to be released in the United States on 31 May 2019. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise towards Egerton's performance. It is the first major Hollywood production to show a gay male sex scene on-screen.

Premise
The film tells the story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music, through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin, as well as his struggles with depression, substance abuse, and acceptance of his sexual orientation.

The events of the film are told in flashback with the frame narrative of Elton in an alcoholics anonymous meeting. The flashbacks also contain musical numbers of John's songs, as imagined in his head during pivotal moments in his life.

Development
Elton John and husband David Furnish had tried to produce a film based on his life for almost two decades. The earliest dated back to 2001, when the film initially started at Walt Disney Studios, with photographer David LaChapelle set to direct the film after his work on the video for John’s 2001 single, “This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore,” which featured Justin Timberlake as a young John. However, no further development took place from Disney since then.

In January 2012, John announced that he had named Timberlake as his top choice to play him in the film. Lee Hall was set to pen the screenplay. In March 2013, Michael Gracey was hired to direct, with Tom Hardy cast in October to play John and Focus Features acquiring the U.S. distribution rights. Filming was initially planned to start in Autumn 2014. However, creative differences between John and Focus along with budget issues caused him and Furnish take the project elsewhere.

No further development on the film was announced until July 2017, when it was announced Hardy was no longer involved with the project, and Taron Egerton entered negotiations to replace him. While editing Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Matthew Vaughn learned about the project and took interest in producing the film on the condition that Egerton played John. Vaughn then picked Dexter Fletcher, who had replaced Bryan Singer during the production of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, to direct the film after Gracey was busy with The Greatest Showman. The producers then filmed a sequence of Egerton as John performing two of John's songs and presented it to Jim Gianopulos, who had worked with Vaughn on the Kingsman franchise at 20th Century Fox and was now the CEO of Paramount Pictures. Paramount agreed to finance the film in exchange for worldwide distribution rights. It was reported that Egerton would sing the songs in the film himself produced by Giles Martin who was by then brought on as music director for the project. In an interview at CinemaCon, Egerton stated the film would be more of a fantasy-musical as opposed to a straightforward biopic.

Casting
In April 2018, Taron Egerton was officially cast to play the musician in the film. Egerton had previously appeared with John in the 2017 film Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and Egerton, as Johnny the Gorilla, sang John's song "I'm Still Standing" in the animated film Sing. In June, the role of Bernie Taupin was given to Jamie Bell. In July, Richard Madden entered negotiations to play John Reid, and Bryce Dallas Howard was cast to play John's mother. Gemma Jones was announced as being cast in the film in October.

Filming
Production commenced on 2 August 2018. Also in October 2018, it was announced the film was shooting in London. Filming commenced at Bray Film Studios near Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Music
An official soundtrack album Rocketman (Music from the Motion Picture) is scheduled to be released by Virgin EMI (UK) and Interscope Records (US) on CD and digital formats on 24 May 2019. The album contains 22-tracks of several hits performed by the cast of the film and a newly written track “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again“ featuring Egerton and John.

Release
Rocketman made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2019 and was released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2019. The film was initially scheduled to be released in the United States on 17 May 2019, but was pushed back to 31 May 2019.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Rocketman will be released alongside Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Ma, and is projected to gross $20–28 million in its opening weekend.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 7.53/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "It's going to be a long, long time before a rock biopic manages to capture the highs and lows of an artist's life like Rocketman." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Steve Pond of the TheWrap said: "It's all grand and fun and corny, a musical fantasy that reaches for the sky and gets there often enough to make it diverting but also frustrating." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film three stars out of five, saying Egerton did a "good impression of the flamboyant musician" and writing: "Rocketman is an honest, heartfelt tribute to Elton John's music and his public image. But the man itself eluded it."