Paramount has set a May 2019 release date for its biographical Elton John film, Rocketman. A movie about the fabulously flamboyant singer, songwriter, and composer has been awhile in the making, with several big names floated to play Elton at various points in the past. Tom Hardy came the closest to doing so back in 2013, but that version of Rocketman petered out in pre-production and would-be freshman director Michael Gracey went on to make his big entrance on another biographical musical, The Greatest Showman. The project was suddenly revived last year when Kingsman's Taron Egerton came aboard to play Sir Elton instead and it's been mostly smooth-sailing since then.

Rocketman was formally green-lit by Paramount back in April, with Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) writing the script and Dexter Fletcher directing. Egerton is also officially onboard now too, having only just appeared with the real-life Sir Elton in last year's sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Further, the movie is clearly (forgive the wording) ready for blastoff, what with Paramount having gone ahead and scheduled Rocketman to hit theaters in just under a year from the time of writing.

Rocketman is now slated to open in theaters on May 17, 2019, where it will serve as counter-programming to John Wick: Chapter 3 during its first weekend. As it currently stands, May 2019 will offer a relatively eclectic collection of movies for audiences to pick from; including, Avengers 4 at the start of the month, followed by the live-action/CGI Detective Pikachu and Disney's own live-action take on its animated musical sensation Aladdin, in addition to the musical biopic Rocketman.

Egerton, for his part, is referring to Rocketman as a "fantasy musical" that uses Elton's most famous songs (including, no doubt, the eponymous tune) to tell his real-life story and express "important beats in his life at emotional moments". Seeing as Elton has long been celebrated for his innovative and ground-breaking approach to pop music, it's only fitting that a film about him buck tradition in a similar way. Not to mention: Hollywood musician biopics can be a bit copy-and-paste in their format, so an Elton memoir that falls on the experimental side would be all the more refreshing in that sense.

Rocketman is similarly promising in terms of its pedigree on both sides of the camera. Egerton and Fletcher previously made the charming true story-based sports romp Eddie the Eagle together, so their reunion on an Elton John movie is all the more exciting for it. Fletcher is also coming off helming the buzzed-about Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which he took over after original director Bryan Singer was fired. However that film turns out, Rocketman will give Fletcher a chance to fully realize his vision of a musician biopic, starting from the very beginning.

MORE: Watch the Bohemian Rhapsody Teaser Trailer

Source: Paramount Pictures