David Bowie fans react with horror and threaten to boycott biopic Stardust after seeing first trailer

Ever since David Bowie passed away in 2016 there has been constant chatter about who should play him in a biopic of his life.

Surprisingly no one has played Bowie in a film yet so rising star and musician Johnny Flynn, who will be taking on the formidable role of one of the most iconic individuals ever, had a lot to live up to.

Stardust, which will look at Bowie's first tour across the United States in 1971 before he became a major star and invented the Ziggy Stardust character, unveiled its first trailer on Wednesday and its safe to say that it has not gone down too well.

Much of the problem would appear to be Flynn's lack of resemblance to Bowie and almost no effort to actually sound like the star at all.

Director, Gabriel Range, has said that Flynn's performance is not supposed to be an impersonation of Bowie. He is quoted by the PA News Agency as saying:

It was really important to me to cast a musician to play David and also when I met Johnny and discovered he was a huge Bowie fan, it just felt really right.

"Johnny could really connect emotionally with that experience of setting out on your career as a musician and playing to those half empty rooms. It's important [Johnny's performance] not be an impersonation of David.

However, despite the misgivings of Flynn's lack of resemblance to Bowie, the film has another hurdle to overcome in that it hasn't been given the rights to any Bowie songs. Back in January 2019, when the movie was first announced, Duncan Jones, the son of Bowie and a film director in his own right, stated that the film had not been given consent from his family and that it won't have any of his father's music in it.

Even if Flynn doesn't look like Bowie, going to see a film without any of his songs would appear to be make or break for some fans.

Some fans are already calling for a boycott of the film.

It should also be noted that Bowie was a fine actor in his own right and starred in acclaimed films like Labyrinth and The Man Who Fell to Earth. He was also something of a prophet so maybe just watch some of his old films or old interviews instead.

Stardust, which also stars Marc Maron, Aaron Poole, Roanna Cocharne and Jena Malone does not have an official release date yet but has been screening at film festivals during October so maybe we should wait before completely writing the movie off.