Pete Davidson to Play Joey Ramone in Upcoming Netflix Biopic
Pete Davidson is set to star as Joey Ramone in an upcoming Netflix biopic about the late Ramones legend, I Slept With Joey Ramone. The announcement comes on the 20th anniversary of Ramone’s April 15th, 2001 death.
The Saturday Night Live star and his frequent collaborator Jason Orley also penned the treatment for the film — based on the 2010 memoir by the same name written by Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh — with Orley also directing the biopic. Davidson and Orley previously teamed up for 2019’s Big Time Adolescence and the comedy special Pete Davidson: Alive from New York.
Netflix and STXfilm will develop and produce the biopic, which is being made with the cooperation and support of the Joey Ramone estate.
“When you share a bed with someone — and not just a bed, but a childhood, a family, and a lifetime — you know that person better than anybody else. Mickey Leigh not only collaborated with his big brother’s band — he has irreplaceable memories of and insights into Joey Ramone, having supported him when no one else would and witnessed him overcome adversity in the most dramatic way,” STXfilms chairman Adam Fogelson said in a statement. “I Slept with Joey Ramone is a great rock anthem that will make an equally great rock biopic, set apart by a universal story of family. Pete is perfect for this role and we’re excited he and Jason will be bringing this icon of rock to life and thrilled to be collaborating once again with our friends at Netflix.”
Leigh’s I Slept With Joey Ramone — written with Legs McNeil — was released in 2010, nearly a decade after the punk legend’s death in 2001 from cancer at the age of 49. In the memoir, Leigh writes about sharing a bed with his brother growing up in Queens, their childhood and teenage years together, as well as the story of the Ramones.
