Rocketman is a 2019 film based on the life and career of Elton John. One of the most successful musicians of all time!
It made its debut in the 2019 Cannes film festival!
- Rocketman is a 2019 biographical musical film
- It is based on the life of musician Elton John
- It is directed by Dexter Fletcher
- And written by Lee Hall
- It stars Taron Egerton as John
- With Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas Howard
- The film follows John’s early days as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to his musical partnership with Bernie Taupin
- The film is titled after John’s 1972 song “Rocket Man”
- An Elton John biopic had been in development for almost two decades
- With the project going through studios including Walt Disney Studios and Focus Features
- Directors including Michael Gracey
- And actors including Tom Hardy and Justin Timberlake
- After creative differences with Focus halted an initial production start in 2014
- John took the project to Paramount Pictures
- With Egerton and Fletcher signing on in April 2018
- Principal photography began in August 2018
- And was completed later that year
- Rocketman premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2019
- And was released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2019
- It is scheduled to be released in the United States on 31 May 2019
- The film received mostly positive reviews from critics
- With general praise for Egerton’s performance
- It is the first major Hollywood production to show a gay male sex scene on-screen
- In April 2018, Taron Egerton was officially cast to play the musician in the film
- Egerton had previously appeared with John in the 2017 film Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- And Egerton, as Johnny the Gorilla, sang John’s song “I’m Still Standing” in the animated film Sing
- In June, the role of Bernie Taupin was given to Jamie Bell
- In July, Richard Madden entered negotiations to play John Reid
- And Bryce Dallas Howard was cast to play John’s mother
- Gemma Jones was announced as being cast in the film in October
- Production commenced on 2 August 2018
- Also in October 2018, it was announced the film was shooting in London
- Filming commenced at Bray Film Studios near Maidenhead, Berkshire
- In March 2019, it was reported by the Daily Mail that Paramount pressured Fletcher to tone down some of the sex scenes
- However, Fletcher stated on Twitter that the rumors were false
- An official soundtrack album Rocketman (Music from the Motion Picture) was released by Virgin EMI (UK) and Interscope Records (US) on CD and digital formats on 24 May 2019
- The album contains 22-tracks of several hits performed by the cast of the film
- And a newly written track “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again“ featuring vocals by Egerton and John together
- Rocketman made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2019
- And was released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2019
- The film was initially scheduled to be released in the United States on 17 May 2019
- But was pushed back to 31 May 2019
- In the United States and Canada, Rocketman will be released alongside Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Ma
- And is projected to gross $20- 28 million in its opening weekend
- In the United Kingdom, it debuted to $6.4 million
- Finishing second behind fellow new release Aladdin
- On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Rocketman holds an approval rating of 90%
- Based on 123 reviews
- With an average rating of 7.66/10
- The site’s critical consensus reads: “It’s going to be a long, long time before a rock biopic manages to capture the highs and lows of an artist’s life like Rocketman”
- On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100
- Based on 34 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
