The Future Is Unwritten: Julien Temple interview

The director of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten on the third part of his 'punk trilogy'.

Widely acknowledged as the leading cinematic chronicler of punk rock, Julien Temple began his career shooting The Sex Pistol's earliest gigs in London in 1976. Some of that footage became The Great Rock'N'Roll Swindle (1980), which told the colourful story of The Pistols from the perspective of their manager, Malcolm McLaren.

In the 80s, Julien dabbled in feature films (Absolute Beginners, Earth Girls Are Easy) and music videos for artists such as Janet Jackson, Tom Petty and Van Halen. He eventually returned to the punk scene with another doc, The Filth And The Fury (2000), which retold the Pistols' story (though this time with contributions from John Lydon and others). The film was a critical and commercial success and paved the way for Julien's next music documentary, Glastonbury (2006), an epic look at the music festival that distilled thousands of hours of home movies and archive footage.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Written is also a documentary and is also about punk rock - but it doesn't involve The Sex Pistols. Instead it's about the mastermind behind that other great British punk band, The Clash. Telling the story of the late "punk rock warlord" from cradle to grave, it offers a fascinating glimpse of one of Britain's foremost musical artists.

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is released in UK cinemas on Friday 18th May 2007.

Jamie Russell | Published 17 May 07