The Libertines reveal whether they'd consider a biopic

19 October 2023, 16:11

The Libertines press image 2023 — The Libertines have talked about the possibility of a biopic. Picture: Ed Cooke

By Jenny Mensah

Pete Doherty and Carl Barât revealed they tried to write some screenplays for a film about the band.

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The Libertines have "talked about" potentially releasing a biopic.

They Camden-formed rockers have been through a lot since the were founded in1997 and when asked if they'd ever release a feature film about the band, Pete Doherty told NME: We’ve talked about it, but then we always have a row about who’s playing who!”

"We even tried to sit down and write some screenplays for it, but it always turns into some farcical comedy," he explained. "There was a musical made in Korea called The Likely Lads. They said it was going to run and run, but it closed after two nights.”

The What A Waster singer added: "Now with all this AI, you can just play yourself. We’d be playing with ourselves, as usual."

Last week saw the band share the details of their fourth studio album All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade and its lead single Run, Run, Run.

The release marks their first new music in eight years, following 2015's Anthems For Doomed Youth album. Although Pete and Carl dispatched themselves to a studio in Jamaica, they found themselves ditching much of their material when they returned to play it for the rest of the band.

"We went away to a secret location in Jamaica and we wrote some new songs," Pete told The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X.

"Only two of us, which is again maybe a bone of contention..." remarked Carl.

Pete added: "We did something we'd never done in so long, which was just to sit down together with some guitars and write some songs and we'd thought we'd done an amazing job. [...] When we got back to play everyone what we did, we sort of looked to each other and thought 'eerr...'

"So we tried again in Margate, but with the four of us and we managed to get a collection of songs together and then we went over to Normandy and honed them a bit...

"So between three or four songs that we never finished and five or six brand new songs, we got an album."

The Libertines talk scrapping Jamaica sessions

On the album cover, which was shot outside their famous Margate lodgings, bar and hotel, they explained that every person on the front represents a character conjured up from some of the songs album.

What we did for the much-debated artwork is that we got the cast members from each song on the record," revealed Carl. "We realised they look like these characters, so we got them suited and booted and got them down The Albion Rooms."