When it was first announced a year ago that Film4 was developing a biopic of Joe Strummer, naturally talk turned to who might play the late Clash frontman, and why that person should or should not be various popular skinny British actors nor James Franco. And while that particular aspect still isn’t settled, the project has made at least one important hire: Julie Delpy has signed on to direct the film—which now bears the London Calling-derived title The Right Profile—and further confound fan speculation as to what the hell this film will actually look like.
After all, Delpy’s directorial efforts to date include the caustic romantic drama 2 Days In Paris and the bizarrely wacky historical biopic The Countess, while she’s probably best known for co-writing the meandering, talky Before Sunrise films (including, potentially, a recently rumored third), movies that don't exactly scream, "Give this person the story of a punk rock icon." But then Variety clears it all up for us, reporting that the film will focus primarily on the year 1982, when Joe Strummer dropped out of the public eye before the release of Combat Rock, then spent a year or so dicking around in Paris. And obviously, you can’t make a movie about dicking around in Paris without Julie Delpy.