After Eddie the Eagle, Taron's the Rocketman: How Kingsman star is in talks to play Sir Elton John in a new film

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Taron Egerton is in discussions about playing Elton John in a film based on the classically trained singer-songwriter’s eventful life.

Egerton, who played Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards in a movie last year and returns as the Cockney-lad spy in the much anticipated Kingsman sequel The Golden Circle in September, has been having informal conversations with Dexter Fletcher and Matthew Vaughn, the director and producer (respectively) of Rocketman.

It will explore the Oscar, Grammy, Olivier and Tony award-winning entertainer’s life in and out of the spotlight.

Hit-maker: Taron Egerton is set to play music legend Elton John

Tom Hardy had been signed to play Elton four years ago. But the actor admitted to having trouble carrying a tune, whereas Egerton has a strong tenor voice.

The 27-year-old Welshman also has a good ear for accents, and with practice — and a little help from Elton himself — he should be able to capture the superstar’s style of singing.

Rocketman, which has a screenplay by Lee Hall (who worked on the Billy Elliot musical with John) had been languishing, but was put on the fast track after Vaughn and Elton chatted between takes on the set of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, in which the singer, essentially playing himself, has a significant cameo.

There’s hope that Rocketman might be shot later this year, but it will depend on whether Egerton and his representatives are able to arrange terms with Vaughn and his colleagues.

Elton John lives fabulously well but over the years has given away millions of pounds

The film starts just as the teenage Reginald Dwight is about to leave the Royal Academy of Music, where he had won a piano scholarship at the age of 11. It then shows how he linked up with lyricist Bernie Taupin and how the pair went on to create numerous pop standards including Bennie And The Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Crocodile Rock, Candle In The Wind and Rocket Man.

The film won’t gloss over some of the juicier parts of John’s private life, but it also wants to examine how he has become one of the best singer-composers of all time and how he has retained his fame in spite of scandals.

‘The public likes a flawed genius,’ someone close to the production told me. ‘And don’t forget new generations are being introduced to songs he wrote decades ago.

‘Plus, there’s the work he did on Disney’s The Lion King, Billy Elliot and all those albums and all that touring.’

Elton lives fabulously well but, over the years has given away millions to his Aids foundation, the Royal Academy of Music, and several other charities.

A spokesperson for Vaughn confirmed that Rocketman will be a co-production between John’s Rocket Pictures and Vaughn’s Marv Films.

A nun with good habits  

Stella Gonet was concerned that nuns get a bad rap.

The actress is going to play a nun — Sister Aloysius, to be precise — in a revival of John Patrick Shanley’s gripping play Doubt, A Parable.

The sister is a no-nonsense principal of a church school in the Bronx who becomes involved in a situation where a priest may have behaved improperly with a student.

Sister act: Stella Gonet will play Sister Aloysius in a revival of John Patrick Shanley’s gripping play Doubt, A Parable

‘She’s got fantastic moral certainty,’ Gonet told me. ‘She’s letting the doubts come — but she’s so hard.’

She was pleased that Shanley dedicated the play to those ‘much-maligned people who do so much good’. She attended a Catholic primary school in Scotland, and though she was ‘weirdly scared’ of some of the nuns, she admired their charity work, and the way they were ‘basically holding up social services’.

I saw the original production in New York with Cherry Jones and we, the audience, were on the edge of our seats. Meryl Streep was in the film version.

Doubt will run at Southwark Playhouse from September 6.

Gonet will arrive in South London via Frinton-on-Sea, where she’ll be playing Florence Foster Jenkins (another Streep film part) in Glorious! at the Frinton Summer Theatre from August 8-12.

Meryl Streep in the film adaptation of Doubt

Playwright Conor McPherson has chosen 20 Bob Dylan songs for his Depression-era play Girl From The North Country (on at the Old Vic) — and the way they’re performed (and arranged by Simon Hale), it’s as if you’ve never heard them before. 

It’s a freewheelin’ piece that reminds me of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show. 

The cast is first-class, too, including Shirley Henderson, Ciaran Hinds, Debbie Kurup, Sheila Atim, Jack Shalloo, Sam Reid, Ron Cook and Stanley Townsend.