Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is set to play punk rock legend Joey Ramone in a new Netflix biopic, I Slept With Joey Ramone.
Davidson and director Jason Orley — who also worked together on Big Time Adolescence and Pete Davidson: Alive From New York — have teamed up to write the treatment of the film, based on the memoir of the same name by Ramone’s brother, Mickey Leigh.
“When you share a bed with someone – and not just a bed, but a childhood, a family, and a lifetime – you know that person better than anybody else. Mickey Leigh not only collaborated with his big brother’s band – he has irreplaceable memories of and insights into Joey Ramone, having supported him when no one else would and witnessed him overcome adversity in the most dramatic way,” said Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms Motion Picture Group, who will produce the film with Netflix.
“I Slept With Joey Ramone is a great rock anthem that will make an equally great rock biopic, set apart by a universal story of family,” he continued. “Pete is perfect for this role and we’re excited he and Jason will be bringing this icon of rock to life and thrilled to be collaborating once again with our friends at Netflix.”
Ramone, born Jeffrey Ross Hyman, was a founding member and the lead singer of punk rock pioneers The Ramones, who became one of the most iconic American punk groups of the 1970s and ’80s, despite modest commercial success. The members of the group — which also included John Cummings, Thomas Erdelyi, Douglas Colvin, Marc Bell and Richard Reinhardt — all adopted stage names with the last name “Ramone,” taken from a pseudonym used by Paul McCartney in his early Beatles days.
Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of Ramone’s death. The legendary musician died on April 15, 2001, at the age of 49, after a years-long battle with lymphoma.
The biopic, executive produced by Davidson, Leigh, Rory Rosegarten and David Spiegelman, will be made with the cooperation and support of the Estate of Joey Ramone and with the assistance of Rosegarten Films.
In addition to SNL — and his highly publicized dating life — Davidson is next set to appear in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which hits theaters on Aug. 6.
