Jez Butterworth to Clash with ‘London Calling’

The Clash were an integral part of the original wave of British punk, and now the 1979 album that launched their popularity overseas will be made in to a feature film of the same name: London Calling. Jez Butterworth, whose writing credits include the recent Fair Game and wrote and directed Birthday Girl almost a decade back, will pen the screenplay with the help of original Clash members Mick Jones and Paul Simonon. Filming is set for 2011 Ruby Films’ Alison Owen and Paul Trijbits will produce along with Butterworth, who had writing support from the now abolished UK Film Council. Ruby Film is the same banner behind recent Brit List hot screenplays Sex Education and Corsica 72 – where we also have an update on that project.

Gist: With Jones and Simonon on board as both advisers and exec producers, London Calling will have exclusive rights to the music that made up the legendary record. According to Variety, the script is said to follow how music producer Guy Stevens, who had an influential role in the British beat and blues boom of the 60’s, used his knowledge and previous success to lead The Clash to fame with their third album.

Worth Noting: Maybe Butterworth will eventually sign on to direct the film. His directorial debut, Mojo, was an official selection at the 1998 Venice Film Festival. IMDb also lists Butterworth as a contributing writer to Spike Lee’s biopic of James Brown, which is currently in development.

Do We Care?: Rolling Stone named “London Calling,” the greatest album of the 80’s (despite it’s 1979) release, and with the direct involvement of the band, this should be a solid companion piece to the Grammy-winning Clash documentary The Clash: Westway to the World and Sundance doc Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.