Elton John names top choices to play him in Rocketman

The Elton John biopic Rocketman is moving right through the pre-production phase with an unnamed director on-board and a wish list of actors to play Elton.

John talked to the L.A. Times with an update on the project.

We have a director on board, and then it's just going to be a matter of getting the script exactly the way we want it. Lee Hall has written a script — he wrote "Billy Elliot" — and then we'll start trying to cast and plan.

When pushed on who will play him in the film:

I don't know. I've got a wish list of people. No. 1 on my wish list is Justin Timberlake, because he played me before in a David LaChapelle video of "Rocket Man" and was superb.

Don't be looking for a straightforward retelling of John's life.

That would be a jukebox musical in earnest, maybe with a couple of new songs. You never know. Because it's going to be a surreal look at my life, and not just a factual look at my life, more in the manner of a "Moulin Rouge!" I just don't want it to be a normal biopic because my life hasn't been like that. And it only goes up to when I go into rehab in 1990. It starts with me going into rehab and ends when I come out.

There's more on his work with Leon Russell, a new album and living with a one-year-old at the L.A. Times.