Irvine Welsh to Write Alan McGee Biopic

Alan McGee
Alan McGee attends a special screening of 'Svengali' during the CBGB Music & Film Festival in New York, October 10, 2013. A biopic about his life is being produced. Eugene Gologursky/Getty

We're used to seeing biopics about musical greats—Tom Hiddleston, for example, is currently starring as Hank Williams in I Saw the Light—but rarely do we see the stories of the people behind those icons.

That's what makes a new movie about the life and career of Scottish music manager and record label boss Alan McGee so enticing.

McGee is the man behind Creation Records, the indie label that enjoyed soaring success between 1983 and 1999 as the home of Oasis, Primal Scream and many more. He was also lead singer of the group Biff Bang Pow! between 1983 and 1991.

Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting and screenwriter of Filth, will adapt McGee's autobiography The Creation Records Story: Riots, Raves and Running a Label for the big screen. Welsh is a close friend of McGee's and has firsthand knowledge of McGee's raucous days running Creation, Variety reported.

The film is produced by Burning Wheel Productions and will be pitched to distributors worldwide by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution at the Cannes Film Festival later in May.

Burning Wheel's Shelley Hammond said: "Burning Wheel is absolutely delighted to be working with Kaleidoscope to create a film about one of the most culturally important British figures in the music business, Alan McGee, written by the voice of a generation Irvine Welsh."

Welsh also has a hand in another big production on the horizon—Trainspotting 2, a sequel to the 1996 movie starring Robert Carlyle and Ewan McGregor and based on Welsh's 1993 novel Trainspotting. The sequel, which reunites Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle with the cast, is loosely based on Welsh's Trainspotting sequel novel, Porno, and begins production in May.

The question surely on everyone's lips about the McGee movie is: Who will play Liam and Noel Gallagher?

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