Andrew Haigh, director of 45 Years and Weekend, is working on a biopic of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, according to Deadline.
McQueen, who killed himself in 2010, was a mercurial talent who developed a reputation as one of haute couture’s brightest stars. The four-time British fashion designer of the year worked with David Bowie on his 2006-07 tour wardrobe and counted Mikhail Gorbachev and Prince Charles among his clients when he was a Savile Row apprentice.
McQueen became infamous for his dramatic and sometimes controversial catwalk shows. His Highland Rape show in 1995 showcased bedraggled models with ripped clothing that exposed their breasts. The designer claimed he was commenting on the Highland clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries, when thousands of Scots were displaced by wealthy aristocratic landowners.
McQueen, who struggled with drug addiction in the later stages of his career, killed himself nine days after the death of his mother, Joyce. An inquest found that the 40-year-old had taken cocaine, sleeping pills and tranquillisers before hanging himself.
The biopic will be based on a script by playwright Chris Urch, author of Land of Our Fathers and The Rolling Stone. It’s thought he’ll be working from Blood Beneath the Skin, a biography of McQueen written by Andrew Wilson.
Haigh is on a critical high after 45 Years, named in the top five of many critic’s best of 2015 lists. That film, which tells the story of a retired couple whose long-term relationship is shaken by the discovery of a long-buried secret, has earned its star, Charlotte Rampling, a best actress Oscar nomination. Rampling and her co-star, Tom Courtenay, were given acting prizes at the London Critics’ Circle awards last week, where 45 Years also won best British or Irish film.
