Vote now on who should take the lead in Musk: The Movie
Nic Cage? Rami Malek? Or maybe Donald Duck? You decide...
A biopic of Elon Musk is in the works, with Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of the controversial figure serving as the source. But who should step into Musk's shoes? Only The Register readership can advise.
We had to check the date on the Variety article a few times to make sure that the announcement of a Musk biopic at A24 was not a trick being played on the unwary. But no - Musk: The Movie is indeed in the works and has Darren Aronofsky currently attached to direct.
Musk appears to approve of the choice of director, although we're not entirely sure that even Aronofsky's signature surreal style will come close to matching the batshit insanity of reality. For every Tesla and SpaceX, there is, after all, a Twitter and a Hyperloop.
Aronofsky is no sure thing - there can be many changes in the make-up of a movie between inception and screen. Yet more intriguing, however, is who the choice of the actor representing Musk might be. Assuming Musk has no input - because if he does, you know he'd choose Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - who do you think can bring the right level of Muskiness to the role? They would need to portray deep themes such as absence of humanity.
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- Foxconn launches its first satellites on a SpaceX rideshare, to advance Microsoft space plan
- European Space Agency grits teeth, preps contracts for SpaceX Galileo launch
And then there is the source material. Should one start with Musk's relatively privileged early life followed by a bit of foreshadowing with his co-founding of x.com? Or dive into his arrival at Tesla and the unfortunate habit his SpaceX rockets had of blowing up? One could also match a montage of Falcon 9's failing to land with other significant events in Musk's life.
The movie could end with a shot of a solitary figure throwing dollar bills into a dumpster fire. A metaphor for Musk's social media adventures.
However, first, an actor must be selected. One able to portray Musk with the gravitas to which the man is due. We spent at least five minutes in the office coming up with this list, but we're pretty sure some of the ideas are more about the characters they've played than the actors. Can you do better? Vote for your favorite and comment below to add your ideas. If you're not on our comments forums yet and would like to weigh in, you can sign up here.