January 30, 2009 16:04

'Rickrolling' Rick Astley writing Hollywood music

Plus singer muses on origins of online video trick

Ricky Astley is writing a musical for Hollywood.

The '80s singer, who is the subject of "Rickrolling" and even made a surprise appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, is working on a script based around his songs.

“My wife's now a movie producer so I read a lot of scripts and I’m really passionate about films,” Astley told The Times. “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. We’re at the point of speaking to a few different agents and getting people to read.

"I’m not fooling myself - nothing may come of it and I totally understand that, but as a process I have loved it. When you’re writing frothy pop songs the lyrics can be a bit ‘whatever’, they are hooky and you just sing them because they work. But writing these songs… Do they call that a libretto?”

The singer also said he did not mind "Rickrolling" – when bogus links are created to take unsuspecting web users to video of Astley's hit 'Never Going To Give Your Up' rather than the stated destination – because its not about him.

He explained: "It’s not about me, is it? It probably started with some kid in Smallsville Arizona who wanted a naff '80s video to trick his friend with, and he chose mine.”