5 Albums That Deserve To Be Movies (30 Days of Stuff)

In a world full of book adaptations, comic adaptations, anime adaptations and the fucking Emoji Movie, it’s pretty apparent that Hollywood is less and less interested in original works and is all about building franchises from existing properties. Recently, I’ve been thinking about a medium that completely changes when made into film; albums. Now, movies based on album aren’t a foreign concept. Sometimes they’re good, like Tommy and The Wall, sometimes they transcend their material like Straight Outta Compton and sometimes they’re… well, sometimes they’re Through The Never. Either way, it’s a medium rife with possibility. Here are 5 albums that deserve to make the leap to the big screen.

5. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - David Bowie

This one ranks so low because of how difficult it would be to make now that David Bowie has sadly passed away. However, roll the clock back, say 10 years, and this album could have been a marvellous movie. The story, if you can believe this, is about a bisexual alien rock star, Ziggy, who becomes a prophet for inter-dimensional beings who can prevent the ending of a dying earth. Within this, we also get to explore the artificiality of rock music, sexual exploration and discovery, Christ-like sacrifice, uninhibited drug use and oppressive political overtones. Imagine the psychedelic visuals of 2001: A Space Odyssey combined with the religious tones of Passion Of The Christ, mixed in with the ‘music saves lives’ story from Walk The Line. Now, there technically already is a movie of Ziggy Stardust, but it’s a documentary concert movie about Bowie himself, and that doesn’t really explore the album in the way I think I deserves.

Potential Cast: David Bowie/Adam Lambert as Ziggy Stardust, Evan Rachel Wood as Queenie The Infinite Fox, John Legend and Dominic Cooper as the other Infinites

Potential Director: Duncan Jones
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4. The Defamation of Strickland Banks - Plan B

Another cheat-like entry, as this album was at one point intended to be a movie, with two music videos accurately showing the style and tone of the intended feature film. However, there has been no word on the project since 2011 and singer/rapper Ben Drew, known as Plan B, has gone onto other film projects including The Sweeney and his directorial debut Ill Manors. However, the story is just too good to not make into a movie. In it, titular pop star Strickland Banks celebrates the end of a successful tour with a raucous night out with his entourage, which ends up in a one night stand with an obsessive fan. After Strickland refuses her offer of a relationship, the fan falsely accuses him of rape and he is sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. The latter half of the movie would explore Strickland’s isolation and abuse in prison, resulting in a shocking scene where he kills his abuser with a shiv, to which his friend and fellow inmate takes the blame and Strickland’s dives into a guilt-riddle depression. It also ends perfectly with a cliff-hanger as new evidence comes to light in his rape case, leaving the ending open to whether the audience would want to see Strickland be set free. Imagine a Guy Ritchie movie with more music and you're basically there, but it needs that special edge that you see in younger English directors like Edgar Wright.

Potential Cast: Plan B as Strickland Banks, Kaya Scodelario as the Fan, James Nesbitt as the Abuser, Joseph Gilgun as the Inmate

Potential Director: Joe Cornish
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3. 2112 - Rush

Perhaps the most celebrated prog-rock album of all time, Rush’s magnum opus is also one of the best examples of a concept album that tells a very cinematically planned out story. It begins in the year 2112, following a galaxy-wide war which results in the union of all planets under the totalitarian, almost fascist-like, rule of the Red Star of the Solar Federation and it’s elite council, the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx. Then, a man discovers an old guitar and learns to play it. Rediscovering the art of rock music, he goes to the Priests, who destroy the guitar and dub him an outcast. Now, on the album, he goes into hiding, undergoes a depressive slump and commits suicide, just as an uprising takes place and begins to overthrow the Solar Federation, but this can be retooled to have our guitar guy become the figurehead of the revolution. With a few tweaks, this could be a Star Wars meets Hunger Games interplanetary tale of revolution.

Potential Cast: Brendon Urie as The Guitar Man, Sir Ian McKellan, Idris Elba, Ben Mendelson, Richard E. Grant and Sigorney Weaver as the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx

Potential Director: Gareth Edwards
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2. American Idiot - Green Day

American Idiot has been a complete hit on stage across the world and given Green Days music an almost timeless version of its message of disillusionment at society and government. It was written in the post 911 Bush Administrations, but today, in a world of Trump and ISIS, thie messages in Idiot couldn’t be more prevalent. In American Idiot, three friends, Johnny, Tunny and Will, experience a disillusioned life in post-war USA. Johnny moves to a big city and develops a debilitating drug habit resulting in a split personality and  a toxic relationship with a girl he doesn’t even know by name. Tunny goes to war and returns an amputee, whilst Will tries to sustain a failing relationship for his newly born child, but fails. Idiot has the most potential out of any album on this list to actually become a movie, the last we head is that it was green-lit. Here’s hoping that the pop punk disenfranchised odyssey can live up to the lofty heights of its source material.

Potential Cast: Andy Biersack as Johnny, Drake Bell as Tunny, Margot Robbie as Whatsername, Ansel Elgort as Will, Jared Leto as St Jimmy, Ellen Page as Heather, Vanessa Hudgens as Extraordinary Girl

Potential Director: Spike Jonze
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1. Brendan Small's Galaktikon - Brendan Small

Okay, cards on the table here: this is the entire reason I wanted to write this article. Brendan Small’s Galaktikon is one of my favourite albums of all time. It’s a comic-book inspired symphonic metal concept album from Brendan Small, the creator of the excellent metal parody band Dethklok from Metalocalypse, and it’s 9 tracks of pure brilliance. In it, galactic superhero Triton goes through a painful divorce with his wife. Meanwhile, Beastblade, Triton’s arch-nemesis, break out of prison and hatches a plan to seduce and kill Triton’s ex-wife. Over the course of the story, Triton seeks spiritual advice from a Lazer Witch, gets kidnapped by space pirates, is force to fight monsters in gladiatorial combat with other slaves, and ends with a climactic battle with Beastblade before coming to terms with being alone in the universe. In the current climate of superhero movies, there is no better time to make this movie, potentially as a Heavy Metal style animated feature, although a live action with CG fare by way of Star Wars, Valerian or Avatar could also work wonders. The upcoming sequel, Galaktikon 2: Before the Storm, means you could also franchise the movie as well! Somebody with money please fund this project right now. Galaktikon deserves to be made into a big budget sci-fi metal musical.

Potential Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Triton, Liev Schreiber as Beastblade, Taylor Momsen as Ex-Wife, Lzzy Hale as The Lazer Witch, Marilyn Manson as Space Pirate Captain

Potential Director: James Gunn & Brendan Small

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By Mike Owen
@ThatMikeOwen

The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of our podcasts, and currently pens Pop Culture Club and The Death of Video Games

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