Roger Daltrey still hoping for Moon movie

Although Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are moving forward with recording new Who material and an upcoming tour, the singer hasn't given up work on a projected Keith Moon movie. He is waiting for the perfect script to capture the many facets of the wild Who drummer, explaining that, "We've had three or four scripts written, and we've never quite nailed what we wanted to do. We've got a new writer. A very famous writer, a Pulitzer Prize winner. I can't name him because I don't know the situation at the moment."

Last October, it was reported that actor Mike Meyers had signed on to portray Moon, but beyond that, no real progress has been made.

Daltrey told us that it's a daunting task taking such a larger-than-life figure such as Moon and squeezing it onto the screen: "It's a very difficult project because I don't want anything in it that people expect. Well, there's a few things, but I want to tell people about the real Moon, not just the bits and pieces they know. And it's very, very difficult to get it into a, an hour-and-45-minute narrative. It's not easy."

He added that, "If I can do it, I hope to make a real rock'n'roll film that will be funny, poignant, sad, celebratory, all the things that Moon was. But if I can't, I'm very glad that I'm holding the reins and stopping any bad films of Keith Moon being made."

Moon died on September 7th, 1978, after attending a preview of the movie The Buddy Holly Story thrown by Paul and Linda McCartney, on what would have been Buddy Holly's 38th birthday. Moon was 31 years old.

The Who will release a "maxi-single" of new material prior to heading out on tour later this spring. The disc will feature Townshend's latest 11-minute "mini-opera," titled The Glass Household, which is based on his recent online novella, The Boy Who Heard Music. A full scale Who album is still in the pipeline.

They kick off their 14-date European summer tour on June 25th in Leeds, England, at Harewood House. US gigs are expected for next fall.