Lost film by Mick Jagger and David Bowie they had planned to write and star in together

Mick Jagger and David Bowie came up with some ideas for a film but you can't always get what you want and it never made it to the big screen

Mick Jagger and David Bowie planned to write and star in their own murder mystery film.

The iconic singers drafted in Lynda La Plante to help write the script after her success with TV show Prime Suspect in the early Nineties. But when she went to meet them to discuss ideas, the pair were hungover and argued about what the plot should be and who they should play in the movie.

Rather than be in harmony the singers couldn't agree on how the film would work. Writing in her new book Getting Away with Murder, Lynda says: "Writers for TV rarely experience hits. Two hits are even rarer....yet with the double hit of Widows and Prime Suspect, my phone was red-hot for the first time in my career.

"One call was from my then TV and film agent Duncan Heath’s office. "A message had come through my agent’s wife, Hilary, that Mick Jagger and David Bowie wanted to meet with me to discuss an upcoming movie project – a crime thriller, apparently. "A date was duly arranged and I trotted off to meet them in a central London hotel where they’d booked a suite for the day."

Lynda goes on to explain she had met neither man before but when she arrived for the meeting both men were "clearly hungover" getting things off to a bad start.

"‘OK, well, let’s kick off. What kind of story are you looking for?’ I asked, sipping a morning coffee. ‘Well, we thought of... a murder mystery...’ Jagger piped up. "‘OK... a murder mystery... on the road?’ I enquired. ‘Yeah... on the road...’ he said, before turning to Bowie to double-check.

"‘What do you mean “on the road”?’ Bowie asked. ‘Well, as in a murder on the road – while a rock band is touring?’ I replied.

"‘Oh no, no, no,’ Bowie shook his head. ‘We didn’t want that. We wanted a murder on the Orient Express...’

"Suddenly, I could see Jagger frowning. ‘No, David... we decided against the Orient Express...’ he said under his breath to Bowie.

"‘Well, we thought it would make a great movie. Agatha Christie’s done it, hasn’t she?’ Bowie continued as if he hadn’t heard.

"I sat and smiled politely, but the truth was I could barely believe that this was their big idea."

Lynda then asked them if they planned to play rock stars travelling on the train. "‘Oh no, no, no,’ Jagger frowned again. ‘We don’t want to play ourselves. We want to be characters...’

"‘Right,’ I said. After that, I sat for a good 15 minutes while Jagger and Bowie batted back and forth, trying to recall whatever plot they had discussed the previous evening under the influence of God knows what.

"‘I could be the assassin!’ shouted Jagger at one point. ‘No, I wanted to be the assassin,’ Bowie replied. ‘OK, but if you’re the killer, who am I?’ Jagger shot back.

"In the end, I lost patience. It seemed pointless me even being there. ‘Look, you two. When you have an idea, call me. I’ll come back and talk then,’ I said. Needless to say, I never heard from either Jagger or Bowie again."

Previous rumours have suggested that iconic singers Bowie and Jagger discussed making other films. These came after they enjoyed the experience of working on the song ‘Dancing In The Street’ that they released raise money for Live Aid in 1985 together and they wanted to continue the partnership after becoming good friends.

Screenwriter Dale Launer has also said previously he was asked to come up with a film script for Jagger and Bowie to star in. He told Premiere magazine in 1988: "I told them they ought to get this old movie about these two gigolo con men who compete for the same woman”.

The pair were interested, and a meeting was quickly arranged between Jagger and an executive at United Artists, the company that was interested in funding the project. There was a problem here though, and that was the reluctance of Universal Pictures to initially sell the remake rights for the film Bedtime Story which it was to be based on. So the project, like with Lynda, never got off the ground. Other rumours in the movie world have suggested Bowie and Jagger were close to working with Martin Scorsese on a project. This also never happened although Jagger would eventually work with Scorsese on the TV project Vinyl.

* Getting Away with Murder by Lynda La Plante is out now published by Zaffre.

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