Renowned documentary and film director Tony Palmer has his eyes on a big project. The prolific filmmaker recently voiced his interest in making a biopic about record-breaking singer Adele, stating that the 'real Adele' would be a compelling subject for a documentary. However, he shortly followed this with the less promising comment 'missed my chance with Adele'. He explained that early in Adele's career, 'My wife had spotted Adele long before she had become really famous and said, "You've got to listen to this voice, it's really amazing". I agreed it was amazing, but I said, "I don't make that kind of film anymore".'The director is attributed with making films about people's character, rather than focus on celebrities' careers, which he considers too impersonal. He went on to add, 'Then I saw a brief interview with her and I thought, my god this is a fascinating woman - to hell with the voice, it's a fascinating woman.' That she is, remember her story on Graham Norton? If you hadn't really heard her talk too much before seeing this interview, this was not the woman you would've put with the voice, and for that she is ten times more lovable.
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Continuing on the subject of Adele he added: "I immediately applied. I wrote to them, saying 'Would you ever consider...' I had a very good response from whoever looked after her then. But then there was the 21 album.[...] Now she's surrounded by 18 record executives. The real Adele would make an absolutely fascinating film, I think. Of that world. But that's never going to happen. It would be hopeless, hopeless, hopeless.' Palmer has gotten close to the likes of Hugh Hefner, Leonard Cohen, Judi Dench (a.k.a. The Dench- again, see Norton), the notoriously enigmatic Rory Gallagher and Liberace, among others.
You're telling us Adele is more diva prone than Liberace? Come on now Palmer, try harder. They may both go by one name, which is a trademark insignia of a diva but even still, the whole point of your interest was her outrageously down to earth nature, so has that really changed? Try harder, Palmer, we want to see a documentary that includes the forlorn men that had their asses handed to them in the form of number one records. Aside from seeing the other perspective of Adele's sweet revenge, she really is a character.
In the same interview the acclaimed director bolstered one star's image, he lambasted another international singer who is a little closer to home for us. Speaking of unfulfilled offers, he opened up about an opportunity he passed up to make a documnetary about U2. In a pretty blatant summary of his feelings on the controversial lead singer, he went on to say 'Bono is not my favourite person in the world, however I am aware of their impact. I ummed and aahed. I couldn't find anything about them that I felt I could actually respond to and therefore contribute.' Ouch, don't hold back.
Acknowledging their official documentary that was made soon after he turned down the project, he said 'I'm told on very good authority that they spent 12 million quid on it! In the end you just want to throttle the buggers, because all they're doing is telling you how wonderful they are [...] I think it opened and closed on the same night. I doubt if anybody's ever seen it, except possibly you and me, and maybe Bono's grandmother.' As loved as Bono is by many a fan, he is equally hated by others for his self congratulating tendencies, so this last comment is relatively factual, U2 fan or not. He continued 'I would want to make a film about Bono and why he does all the ridiculous things that he does and why he wears those silly glasses and so on. The music would take care of itself. [...] I think the definition of a good music documentary is that the person who's making the film has to be first and foremost interested in the person.' No need for further explanations Palmer, the message is loud and clear, Bono is out and Adele is firmly in. Fingers crossed she doesn't pull a stunt in the near future such as flying a 'lucky hat' on its own seat on a first class flight and get struck off your list.
