LORD OF THE RINGS - WOOD TO STAR IN PASSENGER

WOOD TO STAR IN PASSENGER

Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood is set to play one of the king's of the punk movement in a new biopic.

Wood will play Iggy Pop in the movie The Passenger, which will be sold by the firm Becker International.

Becker is currently at the Cannes film festival representing a film about Ian Curtis, the frontman of the Manchester band Joy Division.

The film is called Control and follows the life of Curtis, who committed suicide shortly after the band experienced some success.

Jonathan Page, head of finance and operations at Becker, told Variety that Pop had given The Passenger "his blessing".

The new movie will follow Pop's early years when he performed with the Stooges and recorded three seminal albums which have since influenced a number of other artists.

However, Pop's early career was plagued with poor record sales and the Stooges being dropped by their label due in part to the singer's increasingly erratic behaviour.

The Stooges disbanded in chaos after the release of third album Raw Power and Pop joined his friend and supporter David Bowie who produced the flamboyant frontman's first two solo albums.

Wood became a Hollywood star for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson.