Pete Davidson is ready to rock as punk legend Joey Ramone.
The ”Saturday Night Live” comedian will star in “I Slept with Joey Ramone,” a biopic recounting the life of The Ramones frontman, who established himself as an icon of the punk genre before his death from lymphoma in 2001.
Netflix announced the film in a press release Thursday, which also marked the 20th anniversary of Ramone’s death. According to STX Films chairman Adam Fogelson, Davidson “is perfect for this role,” and Mickey Leigh’s memoir is “a great rock anthem that will make an equally great rock biopic.”
Johnny (from left), Joey, Marky and Dee Dee Ramone of the punk rock group The Ramones are seen in this undated photo.
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“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,” Fogelson added. “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.”
Orley and Davidson previously worked together on the film “Big Time Adolescence” and on Davidson’s Netflix standup special ”Alive from New York.”
As singer for The Ramones, arguably one the most influential U.S. band of the 20th century, Ramone and faux brothers Dee Dee, Johnny and Tommy shaped and motivated an entire generation of post-disco rockers from The Clash and the Sex Pistols to Nirvana and Pearl Jam to Green Day and The Offspring.
The lanky singer, perennially clad in shades, black leather jacket, frayed jeans and sneakers, formed the Queens quartet in 1974 and surfaced on the punk scene two years later as the genre’s prototype, a loud, proud geek rebel.
On the eve of releasing 1995 farewell album “Adios Amigos,” Ramone told USA TODAY, “In the late ‘70s, there was Toto, Boston, Journey and Disco Duck. If you didn’t sound like Meat Loaf or the flavor of the day, you didn’t have a chance in hell. We’d play Philadelphia and visit the radio station — I don’t know why, ‘cause they never played us — and the program director would say, ‘If you sounded more like the Doobie Brothers, we’d play you.’ Ironically, now everyone sounds like The Ramones.”
