Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 01/04/2012 at 8:59 AM News

The Popdust Files: biopics, elton john, justin timberlake, rumors, upcoming movies

Most of the internet, including us here at Popdust, poo-poo’ed Elton John for his comments about how Justin Timberlake was #1 on his wishlist of actors to play him in his upcoming biopic (apparently called Rocketman, because movie audiences hate multi-word titles)—keep dreaming, we said. But now it seems like word has gotten back to JT about the rock star’s flattering comments, and given him something of an itch he can’t scratch. “Justin is taking it very seriously,” sources have told E! Online about the Elton John “offer.” “He’s working with his people to figure out exactly how to respond.”

Well, cool and all, if everyone’s in agreement, but did John’s offhand interview comment really count as an official offer? Isn’t that kind of like saying “Well, I’d love to work with Justin Bieber on this album”—it doesn’t necessarily mean that that you’re committed to writing and producing a duet for him and keeping an slot on the album open for the resulting track, does it? And anyway, aren’t there other people involved with the movie, other producers and a director and whatnot, who probably need to be consulted before John starts handing out handshake agreements?

Perhaps there’s more to the story that we don’t know about yet, but were we JT, we’d keep down on the mass orders of goofy, sparkly, over-sized eyeglasses until we officially had this one locked down.