Danny Boyle Tapped to Direct FX Series Based on the Memoir of Sex Pistols Guitarist/Radio Host Steve Jones

Danny Boyle, the acclaimed, Oscar-winning director of films including Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, has been announced as being attached to a new FX limited series based on Lonely Boy, the 2017 memoir from Sex Pistols guitarist (and current radio host) Steve Jones.

Per Deadline, Boyle will direct and executive produce the six-part series centering on the incendiary English punk band. As far as acting talent, Toby Wallace of the 2019 film Babyteeth will play Jones, while Maisie Williams (Arya Stark on Game of Thrones) will portray Pamela Rooke, otherwise known as Jordan, the model/punk icon who was a heavy presence during the early days of the Sex Pistols’ existence in the 1970s.

Said Danny Boyle about this new project, per Deadline:

“Imagine breaking into the world of The Crown and Downton Abbey with your mates and screaming your songs and your fury at all they represent. This is the moment that British society and culture changed forever. It is the detonation point for British street culture…where ordinary young people had the stage and vented their fury and their fashion…and everyone had to watch and listen…and everyone feared them or followed them. The Sex Pistols. At its center was a young charming illiterate kleptomaniac — a hero for the times — Steve Jones, who became in his own words, the 94th greatest guitarist of all time. This is how he got there.”

Back in 2017, Jones spoke with Rock Cellar’s Ken Sharp about his memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, Jones discussed his resistance to hold anything back in telling his tale as he’d want it told:

Nothing was too painful to talk about. I’d already unraveled most of the stuff that was in the book prior to doing the book. It wasn’t like any big revelations came as I was putting the book together.

The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable was knowing the world is gonna know that I got fucked around with by my stepfather. But I thought, fuck it, it wasn’t my fault and I want it in the book. It’s a part of my upbringing and it steered me in a direction.

I think it was important to have all that in there.

Hopefully, the up-front nature of Jones’s memoir inspires a similarly engaging FX series from Boyle and his crew. Stay tuned!