Shaun Ryder gives update on his movie biopic Twisting My Melon

It's been in the works since 2013

Shaun Ryder in 2023
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 22nd Jan 2024

Shaun Ryder has explained why his long awaited movie biopic Twisting My Melon is yet to see the light of day.

Way back in 2013, it was first announced that plans were afoot to turn the Happy Mondays, Black Grape and Mantra of the Cosmos vocalist’s 2011 autobiography Twisting My Melon into a film.

Six years later, Skins actor Jack O’Connell was announced as the lead actor with Matt Greenhalgh directing and writing the script.

Greenhalgh also wrote the script for the Ian Curtis biopic Control, John Lennon‘s origin story Nowhere Boy, and the upcoming Amy Winehouse movie Back to Black.

Filming was due to commence in 2020, however work on Twisting My Melon has ground to a juddering halt.

Explaining why it’s yet to be made, Shaun Ryder told Classic Pop magazine that the film’s American funders pulled the plug over its creative direction.

“Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script and was gonna direct,” Ryder explained.

“So we got the money, half-English, half-American and Matt fell out with the Americans. They didn’t want to make the film that Matt wanted to make. They wanted to make a film like all those other biopics, so it had to have a certain bit of this and a certain bit of that. So the American money went and it all went (messed) up really.

“Matt’s still working on getting it made, so that’s where he is now. At the moment, he’s just looking for another lot of backers.”

Twisting My Melon takes its name from Ryder’s famous line in Happy Mondays’ ‘Step On’, a cover of the 1971 John Kongos track ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again.’

Happy Mondays embark on a mammoth 15-date UK tour in March and April 2024 with special guests Inspiral Carpets and Stereo MCs.

Music News: Shaun Ryder claims he's being targeted by aliens

The real names of famous musicians:

Mark Berry (Bez)


John Martin Maher (Johnny Marr)


Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (Lana Del Rey)


William Bruce Rose (Axl Rose)


Gerard Crosbie (Gerry Cinnamon)


Edward Louis Severson III (Eddie Vedder)


Farrokh Bulsara (Freddie Mercury)


Michael Peter Balzary (Flea)


Perry Bernstein (Perry Farrell)


Robert Deal (Mick Mars)


Frank Ferrano (Nikki Sixx)


Frank Edwin Wright III (Tré Cool)


Courtney Michelle Harrison (Courtney Love)


Georg Albert Ruthenberg (Pat Smear)


Chaim Klein Witz (Gene Simmons)


James Newell Osterberg, JR. (Iggy Pop)


Vincent Damon Furnier (Alice Cooper)


Saul Hudson (Slash)


Michael Ryan Pritchard (Mike Dirnt)


Ronald James Padavona (Ronnie James Dio)


Bree Joanna Alice Robinson (Brody Dalle)


Chad Robert Turton (Chad Kroeger)


Deborah Anne Dyer (Skin)


Nicholas Jones (Nicky Wire)


Amy Lynn Hartzler (Amy Lee)


William Perks (Bill Wyman)


Jeffrey Isbell (Izzy Stradlin)


Stanley Eisen (Paul Stanley)


Henry Garfield (Henry Rollins)


Richard Harrison (Rick Parfitt)


Vincent Neil Wharton (Vince Neil)


Stevland Hardaway Morris (Stevie Wonder)


Michael McKagan (Duff McKagan)


Ian Kilmister (Lemmy)


John Baldwin (John Paul Jones)


Joan Larkin (Joan Jett)


Keith Palmer (Maxim Reality)


Eric Patrick Clapp (Eric Clapton)


Susan Janet Ballion (Siouxsie Sioux)


David Robert Hayward Stenton Jones (David Bowie)


Richard Wayne Penniman (Little Richard)


John Simon Ritchie (Sid Vicious)


Paul Daniel Frehley (Ace Frehley)


Louis Firbank (Lou Reed)


John Graham Mellor (Joe Strummer)


Mark Feld (Marc Bolan)


David Howell Evans (The Edge)


Marvin Lee Aday (Meatloaf)


Steven Victor Tallarico (Steven Tyler)


John Michael Osbourne (Ozzy Osbourne)


John Francis Bongiovi (Jon Bon Jovi)


John Anthony Gillis (Jack White)


Paul David Hewson (Bono)


Reginald Kenneth Dwight (Elton John)


Gordon Sumner (Sting)


Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan)


Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (Lorde)


Gary Mounfield (Mani)


Alan John Wren (Reni)


Quentin Leo Cook (Fatboy Slim)


Jake Edwin Charles Kennedy (Jake Bugg)


Roger Keith Barrett (Syd Barrett)


George Ezra Barnett Smitherson (George Ezra)


William John Paul Gallagher (Liam Gallagher)


Rory Charles Graham (Rag'n'bone Man)


Stephanie Lynn Nicks (Stevie Nicks)


William Michael Albert Broad (Billy Idol)


Steven Patrick Morrissey (Morrissey)


Leslie Sebastian Charles (Billy Ocean)


Paul Arthurs (Bonehead)


Graham McPherson (Suggs)


Stuart Leslie Goddard (Adam Ant)


Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (Hozier)


Listen to Absolute Radio across the UK on your digital radio, the free Rayo app, by hitting that play button on the bottom of your screen or by asking your smart speaker to "play Absolute Radio".