Sean Michaels 

Con Air director courting The Who for Quadrophenia-styled TV series

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are in talks to co-produce a series set in the 60s called Mods and Rockers, according to reports
  
  

The Who in 1966
The Who in 1966. Photograph: J Barry Peake/Rex Photograph: J Barry Peake /Rex Features

The director of Con Air and The Expendables 2 is reportedly wooing the Who to collaborate on a TV show about English rock’n’roll in the 1960s. Simon West has described Mods and Rockers as an “international series” that takes place in the same “kind of world” as Quadrophenia.

According to a report by Screen Daily, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are in talks to co-produce Mods and Rockers, overseeing music for the proposed eight-part series. West, who also directed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, seems to be envisioning a program in the vein of True Detective: “I’d like to ... shoot all episodes of a series in one go, back to back, then split them up,” he said. “That way I would get control over the look and essence of the piece from top to bottom.” He claims to have received interest from several unnamed “major broadcasters” and “established production companies”.

The Who themselves have yet to comment publicly on West’s project. It’s not clear whether they’re seriously involved in the production or just one of several parties the English film-maker has reached out to. In addition to the Who’s past work on the Tommy and Quadrophenia movies, Townshend has reportedly spent part of the past decade working on his own scripted musical, called Floss.

“I ... want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock’n’roll,” he said in 2009. Described as a response to My Generation, it follows a baby-boomer pub-rock musician who hits the big time – only to struggle in later life.

The Who last went on tour in 2012 and 2013, performing Quadrophenia in full. In April, Townshend revealed that they hope to return to the road this year and might even go back into the studio, drawing on the guitarist’s Floss material. “It might be a big waste of time,” he told Billboard, “but I’m hoping there will be an album.”

 

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