Queen of Rock

New featurette offers a glimpse of the weird and surreal look of ‘Rocketman’

Paramount Pictures continues to fuel the buzz around Rocketman, the much-anticipated musical biopic of out-gay rock star Elton John. On Thursday, the studio released a new mini-doc further previewing the film’s surrealist style.

“It had to be as honest as possible,” Elton says of the new film. “The lows were very low, but the highs were very high. That’s how I wanted the film to be.” John, along with his husband David Furnish, will produce the Dexter Fletcher-directed movie.

Related: Call off the riots! ‘Rocketman’ will NOT undergo cuts to gay sex scenes

“It’s Elton’s magical retelling of his own life,” says Fletcher, who adopted a style similar to that of classic Hollywood musicals for the film. “Because of the nature of who Elton is, the storytelling allowed us to totally indulge the fantasy and imagination.” The movie will feature extended, surrealist musical song & dance sequences set to some of John’s most iconic tunes.

Rocketman has already generated considerable discussion in Hollywood over the amount of gay content featured in the film. Early reports suggested Paramount had wanted to cut some of the more adult scenes featuring male nudity to secure a PG-13 rating, though the creative team behind the film issued staunch denials. The film stars Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell and Bryce Dallas Howard and hits movie screens May 31.

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