Representatives of The Who have called out an upcoming film as a “blatant attempt to cash in” on the band’s legacy, according to Rolling Stone. News broke last month that work was starting on a sequel to Quadrophenia, the 1979 movie that taught the world that floppy-haired Mods and motorcycle-riding Rockers are Earth’s most bitter and natural enemies. Co-written by Pete Townshend, and loosely based on The Who’s 1973 rock opera of the same name, the movie is a landmark in the fields of generational angst, the fusion of soundtrack to subject, and the use of movies as feature-length commercials for amphetamines, Sting, and sporty little scooters.
As for the sequel, Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels is set to reprise his role as the rebellious Jimmy Cooper, now grown into a troubled, drug-dealing gangster. That’s per the movie’s source material, Peter Meadows’ 2011 novel To Be Someone, which bills itself as “Inspired by Quadrophenia.”
But while Meadows apparently got Pete Townshend’s permission to write and publish the book—at least, according to the novel’s Amazon page—the band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, has denounced the upcoming film as a “karaoke sequel.” “Quadrophenia has an enduring appeal and will forever be the definitive Mod film,” Curbishley said in a statement. “Any follow-up to this film could only be made by the authors of the original and would need to be worthy of the name.” He also noted that the new movie won’t feature performances from Sting or Ray Winstone, or—most damning for a movie trying to follow in the original’s nattily dressed footsteps—any music from The Who.