Rickroll: The Musical and Dirty Harry Sings

By FocusFeatures.com  | February 03, 2009 @ 08:45 am

Another week, another batch of revelations about leftfield musicals. First up, we have the news that Rick Astley - yes, the "Never Gonna Give You Up" 80s singer who currently is most famous for his role in the shameless act of Rickrolling - is penning a movie musical. Astley, who has only released two albums in the last 16 years, was recently inspired to write a script because of his spouse's current occupation. "My wife's now a movie producer so I read a lot of scripts and I'm really passionate about films," he said in a recent interview. "One day I thought, 'Well, why don't I write one?'" The script, which he is collaborating on with a writer, has evolved into New York Cowboy, and Astley is currently touting it around Hollywood in the hope it will get made. Arguably an even more oddball story is that of British indie giant Robyn Hitchcock's latest project. With a last name like that, it would make sense that he has the movies in his blood, but it's not a movie by the Master of Suspense that he's got his eye on for adaptation, it's one by Clint Eastwood. While perhaps The Bridges of Madison County, Every Which Way But Loose or Bird would seem ripe for the picking, the movie that Hitchcock wants to turn into a Broadway musical is, in fact, the Dirty Harry flick Magnum Force. He has already written a song inspired by the movie for his most recent album, Ole! Tarantula, but just can't seem to get it out of his head. "It's a film that seemed to be on all the time when I was on tour," he told The Guardian newspaper. "By the fifth time, I became addicted to it. It's taken a very strange hold on my life." As with Astley's project, this is still to be greenlit, but hopefully both will see the light of day sooner rather than later. And while you're waiting for those, here's a little musical treat to keep you happy.