Sam Taylor-Wood lines up stellar cast for Lennon biopic

Sam Taylor-Wood, the artist turned movie director, is cracking on with her debut feature film, a biopic about John Lennon's (left) teenage years, having found two actors to play the main parts. Eighteen-year-old newcomer Aaron Johnson (right) will take on the role of the former Beatle, while Kristin Scott Thomas will play Lennon's Aunt Mimi.

Taylor-Wood, who is clearly not letting herself get distracted by her estranged husband Jay Jopling's much publicised affair with the pop singer Lily Allen, chose Johnson, who can sing and play the guitar, after auditioning more than 100 actors. His previous film experience was playing a teenage hunk in Gurinder Chadha's 2008 film, Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging.

Scott Thomas, who is up for a Golden Globe for her role in the French film I've Loved You So long, was cast after Taylor-Wood saw her perform in The Seagull on Broadway. "I told her she would be right to play John Lennon's Aunt Mimi and we talked and talked about it and she agreed."

Anne Marie Duff will play Lennon's mother, Julia, whose early death resulted in the Beatle living with Aunt Mimi. Says Taylor-Wood of the sisters’ relationship. "Mimi was the eldest sister, born in the early part of the last century and Julia came later and they couldn't have been more different. Mimi was strict and very proper but she knew how to enjoy a joke, and Julia was the sister who was what today we'd call laid-back. She liked music and was a bit bohemian and didn't take things as seriously as Mimi."

The film, Nowhere Boy, which will begin shooting on locations in and around Liverpool in March, with Ealing Studios being used for interior scenes, is scheduled for release in 2010.
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