Andrew Haigh is set to helm a biopic about late fashion legend Alexander McQueen.
The filmmaker received universal praise for his movie ’45 Years’ – which he wrote and directed and which spawned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for its leading lady Charlotte Rampling – and will now lead the highly-anticipated project about the British designer’s life.
According to Deadline, Haigh will chronicle the rise of McQueen, who was a pioneer of haute couture fashion and one of the most in-demand clothing experts in the world but who tragically killed himself in February 2010 shortly after his mother passed away.
The biopic will be based on a script by playwright Chris Urch – author of ‘Land of Our Fathers’ and ‘The Rolling Stone’ – who will be adapting Andrew Wilson’s biography of McQueen, ‘Blood Beneath the Skin’.
McQueen – who was openly gay – had an interesting path to stardom.
From Scottish/Irish decent, he was born in east London and his dad was a taxi driver, but rather than follow in his father’s footsteps he took up an apprenticeship as a tailor on Savile Row and a course at Central Saint Martin’s fashion school followed.
He was friend to fellow British icons Kate Moss and the late David Bowie, whom he dressed for his 2006/2007 tour, and was named British fashion designer of the year on four occasions.
Before finding fame as a designer, McQueen dressed royals and statesmen, including Britain’s Prince Charles and former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhael Gorbachev, when he was a tailor on Savile Row.
Andrew Haigh to helm Alexander McQueen biopic
