Jack O’Connell’s Unplayed Role: The Shaun Ryder Story That Never Was

Jack O’Connell, at 35, is still one of the most sought-after actors going, right up there with the likes of Austin Butler and Timothée Chalamet. Fresh off the back of the hit vampire flick Sinners, he’s got a stack of projects lined up. But his path to stardom was anything but smooth. Growing up, he found himself in and out of trouble with the law, struggled with substance issues, and lost his dad young. A promising shot at a football career was cut short by injury. It was only thanks to drama classes at school and crashing in London to make auditions that he found his feet in acting.

From Gritty Beginnings to Big Screen Success

O’Connell’s latest film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is set to hit cinemas soon. The Alex Garland-scripted spin-off builds on last year’s third instalment of the franchise, which copped rave reviews. O’Connell played the menacing leader of the ‘Jimmys’ gang, a role that fit right in with his knack for playing tough, complex characters. He’s been at it for two decades now, first turning heads as a terrifying teen in Eden Lake, a low-budget shocker with Michael Fassbender. That performance earned him a swag of industry awards, and he pulled off a similar feat in Harry Brown alongside Michael Caine.

Over the years, he’s built a reputation for tackling all sorts of roles, from gritty dramas to big-budget blockbusters. His first major lead came in 2014 with Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, where he played a prisoner of war. That one landed him more award nominations and cemented his place as a serious talent.

The Shaun Ryder Biopic That Never Happened

One part O’Connell seemed born to play was Shaun Ryder, frontman of the Happy Mondays, in the biopic Twisting My Melon. The script, written by Matt Greenhalgh—who, like Ryder, hails from Manchester—looked set to go, but the project was shelved in 2024 after creative disagreements. O’Connell spoke about his admiration for Ryder, saying,

“Fucking hell, man, I was listening to his music as a kid. At 13, I used to DJ his music. What he did as a working-class lad from Manchester-slash-Salford it’s colossal. He’s a working-class hero that people wrote off from the beginning. Even if you don’t have anything in common with him, there’s enough in his story to garner sympathy, to garner fascination. In a lot of ways, he’s one in a million.”

Ryder’s story is a wild one. He went from working on building sites as a teen to forming the Happy Mondays and dropping their first EP on Factory Records in 1985. The band became a key part of the early ‘90s rave scene, never far from controversy or drug use. Ryder himself battled heroin addiction but has been clean since the early 2000s.

O’Connell’s Own Manchester Music Tale

While the Ryder biopic never got off the ground, O’Connell did have a crack at telling a story about Manchester’s music scene with Weekender in 2011. That film, set in the city’s 1990 club culture, didn’t exactly win over critics or punters, but it showed O’Connell’s ongoing interest in the world Ryder came from.

With a career full of tough roles and a knack for bringing complex characters to life, O’Connell’s missed chance to play Ryder is just another twist in a journey that’s been anything but ordinary.