David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones hits out at plans for new biopic starring Johnny Flynn

"As it stands, this movie won’t have any of dad's music in it."

The son of the late David Bowie has confirmed that he isn’t giving his seal of approval to a forthcoming biopic of the rock icon, starring Johnny Flynn.

It was confirmed yesterday that Flynn will portray Bowie in Stardust, which traces the star’s 1971 trip to America that inspired the creation of Ziggy Stardust.

However, Moon director Jones has now confirmed that the film is going ahead without the approval of Bowie’s family – and there has been no approval to feature his music in it.

“Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic… I would know,” wrote Jones on Twitter.

He added: “I’m not saying this movie is not happening. I honestly wouldn’t know. I’m saying that as it stands, this movie won’t have any of dads music in it, & I can’t imagine that changing.

“If you want to see a biopic without his music or the families blessing, that’s up to the audience.”

Although Jones also admitted that his perspective would be “too uniquely subjective” to make a biopic, he instead suggested that he’d be keen for a movie scripted by legendary fantasy writer Neil Gaiman and directed by Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s Peter Ramsey.

“If @Neilhimself [Gaiman] wanted to write something using dad’s characters, and @pramsey342 and his team wanted to make it as an animated film, I would urge everyone on my end to pay attention and give the pitch serious consideration,” Jones confirmed.

In November 2018, Jones also tweeted to reveal that film companies were “insisting” that he attended meetings about the biopic, although it’s now clear that no approval deal was achieved.

The biopic will begin shooting later this year and sees Flynn joined by Game of Thrones’ Jena Malone as Bowie’s first wife Angie and GLOW‘s Marc Maron as his publicist.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed earlier this week that Bowie’s first ever performance as Ziggy Stardust has been unearthed for a new documentary.