Morrissey Biopic ‘Steven’ Announced, Movie To Focus On His Younger, Pre-Smiths Days

“I’m so glad to grow older, to move away from those awful times,” poetic pop grump Morrissey crooned in “Break Up The Family,” an album track off his 1988 solo debut Viva Hate. Alas, the producers of 2013 Academy Award-nominated short The Voorman Problem, Honlodge, plan to zero on those pre-fame days of Moz’s youth for the just-announced biopic Steven.

Director Mark McGill describes the movie in a press release as follows: “The film covers Morrissey’s life pre-Smiths and is more of a portrait than a conventional biopic. It’s as much a film for non-Morrissey fans as it is for die-hard devotees, but I can’t deny that this is a love letter to Steven Patrick Morrissey and the dark satanic mills of Manchester.”

It’s hard to fathom that Morrissey has never won a Grammy or a Brit Award, but if the British crooner was moping about his lack of validation, this past year alone should have cheered him up. Last fall, his self-penned Memoir topped the British best-seller list before its American release in December. That was followed in early 2014 by news of Morrissey’s new label deal through Capitol Records imprint Harvest. Moz’s first studio album in five years, World Peace Is None Of Your Business, is expected to be released this July, shortly after his spring tour through North America wraps up on June 21 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — an event that has Sir Cliff Richard flying over from the UK just to take up opening act duties.

Needless to say, it’s probably time for Morrissey to permanently take “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby” out of his repertoire.

Steven will be produced by Orian Williams, who was behind 2007’s Ian Curtis bopic Control, and shooting is scheduled to begin in England later this year.

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