Rick Astley Writing A Movie Musical

Do you know what Rickrolling is?  There are some great explanations online – here, here and here, for example. It 's been such an internet phenomenon you're probably as familiar with it as you are ROFLcopters and LOLcats, All Your Base and Chocolate Rain.

Basically, Rickrolling is the act of getting somebody to click on a link only for them find not what they had been promised, but the video to Rick Astley's 80s hit Never Gonna Give You Up. There's no clear or logical reason why it was this song that caught on in this way, why it's Rickrolling we have as opposed to Tiffanyrolling or Limahlrolling, but this fad blew up pretty darn big. The song has also now become a regular protest device against Scientology, sung out loud and in public by some folk calling themselves Anonymous and wearing V for Vendetta masks – I kid you not.

The epic Rickroll took place at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last year in which Rick himself made a surprise appearance on the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float. For me, that one's going to be hard to top. Perhaps somebody can President Obama on the phone and have him hold for a call from, I dunno, Ming the Merciless, and then just connect him to Astley? That might do it.

So, besides being the star of the most played music video of the last few years, what else is Astley up to? I guess that perhaps he wants to start earning his fame again, so he's been beavering away.

He tells The Times, "My wife's now a movie producer so I read a lot of scripts and I'm really passionate about films. One day I thought, Well, why don't I write one? and it turned into a musical — but not for the stage. It's dominated by the songs I've written – they tell the stories – so I hooked up with a guy in California and we wrote the script together."

Apparently, Astley is just now talking to agents, but if his songs are up to snuff, I wouldn't be surprised to see this one sooner rather than later. Advertising it online should be a cinch, anyway. I bet trying to track down a real copy of the trailer online would be "fun".

Oh... and he's the real link to The Times. Sorry.  I couldn't resist it.