Pete Davidson will star as Joey Ramone in Netflix's upcoming biopic about the celebrated punk singer, titled I Slept With Joey Ramone.

The biopic about the Ramones frontman, born Jeffrey Ross Hyman, is based off the 2010 memoir of the same name, written by Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh, and music journalist Legs McNeil. The book offers a glimpse into the private life and career of the disaffected outcast-turned-counterculture icon.

Netflix will develop and produce I Slept With Joey Ramone in partnership with STXfilm. Davidson wrote the film treatment with his frequent collaborator Jason Orley. The Saturday Night Live cast member previously worked with Orley on the 2019 comedy Big Time Adolescence and his 2020 stand-up special, Pete Davidson: Alive From New York.

The biopic announcement arrives on the 20th anniversary of Ramone's death. The singer succumbed to a seven-year battle with lymphoma on April 15, 2001, at the age of 49. Netflix and STXfilm are producing the biopic with the cooperation and support of the frontman's estate.

“When you share a bed with someone — and not just a bed, but a childhood, a family and a lifetime — you know that person better than anybody else," STXfilms chairman Adam Fogelson said in a statement. "Mickey Leigh not only collaborated with his big brother’s band — he has irreplaceable memories of and insights into Joey Ramone, having supported him when no one else would and witnessed him overcome adversity in the most dramatic way."

Fogelson also called Davidson "perfect for this role." The actor previously portrayed Motley Crue A&R man Tom Zutaut in the Netflix 2019 biopic The Dirt, adapted from the band's scandalous 2001 memoir of the same name.

 

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