Jamie Bell is in negotiations to play Bernie Taupin, the famed songwriter who collaborated on 30 albums with Elton John, in Paramount’s biopic “Rocketman” starring Taron Egerton as John.


Dexter Fletcher is attached to helm the project. Lee Hall penned the script. Paramount Pictures will finance and distribute the pic.


Taupin began collaborating on songs with John back in 1967, when the two both answered an advertisement for talent placed in the New Musical Express by Liberty Records A&R man Ray Williams. Though both were rejected for that job, John would stumble across Taupin’s poetry, leading to one of the greatest music collaborations ever.


The two worked together on hits including “Crocodile Rock,” “Honky Cat,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Candle in the Wind,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and the title of the project, “Rocket Man.”


Matthew Vaughn and his Marv Films will produce, along with John and his Rocket Pictures partner David Furnish.


Bell is coming off his AMC Revolutionary War series “Turn,” where he starred as American spy Abraham Woodhull and which recently ended its four-year run on the network. Bell was also recently seen opposite Annette Bening in “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.”