Malcolm McLaren - Other Projects

Other Projects

During the 1980s, McLaren attempted to make a film called Fashion Beast, from a script by comic-book writer Alan Moore. McLaren took the project to New York City in 1986, and was for a time funded through NYC-based nightlife impresario and producer Robert Boykin. Avenue Pictures recommended screenwriter Steve Means to rewrite the Alan Moore script. This was contracted and several drafts written, but the process slowed down with the physical deterioration of producer Boykin, who subsequently died in 1988. McLaren declared the project "an orphan." The film was never made, but McLaren was involved with other film and television projects, including The Ghosts of Oxford Street, made for Channel 4 in 1991. This musical history of London's Oxford Street was directed and narrated by McLaren and included performances by The Happy Mondays, Tom Jones, Rebel MC, Kirsty MacColl, John Altman and Sinéad O'Connor. McLaren was also one of the producers for the film adaptation of Fast Food Nation, which premiered on 19 May 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival and was released in late 2006.

McLaren approached the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985, early in their career, expressing interest in managing them, and reinventing the group. After hearing a short live set, McLaren was "clearly unimpressed" according to Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis. He then proposed to reinvent the group by having them dress in neon surfer-punk clothing, and have them play really stripped-down, basic 1950s rock n' roll, with all of the emphasis on Kiedis. Although Kiedis was flattered to be considered, he and the band rejected the offer. Kiedis recalled the event, saying "It was like the Wizard of Oz had spoken, and what he had said was too ludicrous to take seriously", as his proposition was too different from the band's musical style.

In an issue of New Statesman published on 20 December 1999, an article titled "My Vision for London" included the McLaren Manifesto, and there was speculation that McLaren might stand to be elected as Mayor of London, although ultimately he did not run.

McLaren had a 2005 exhibition of some autobiographical work at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe) in Karlsruhe, Germany called Casino of Authenticity and Karaoke. This installation had originally been part of the Bonnefanten's 1999 exhibit Smaak – On Taste in Maastricht. In 2003, he wrote the article "8-Bit Punk" championing 8-bit music. He also appeared on This Spartan Life, a popular machinima that frequently uses 8-bit music, and he also discussed the topic.

In 2006, McLaren presented the documentary series Malcolm McLaren's Musical Map of London for BBC Radio 2, followed in 2007 by Malcolm McLaren's Life and Times in L.A. Also in 2007, McLaren competed in a reality TV show for ITV titled The Baron, filmed in the small Scottish fishing village of Gardenstown. The series was due to be shown in August 2007, but was postponed owing to the death of fellow contestant actor Mike Reid shortly after filming was completed. It was eventually broadcast starting on 24 April 2008. During filming McLaren was seen urinating into the harbour and loudly telling assembled inhabitants of the famously devout town, 'Jesus is a sausage', at which point he was physically assaulted by a resident. McLaren came last in the competition, which was won by Reid. It was announced on 7 November 2007 that McLaren would be one of the contestants in the seventh series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, set in the outback of Australia and premiering on British television on Monday 12 November 2007, but he pulled out the day he had flown to Australia. He told press "it is fake", that he didn't know any of the other celebrities and quite frankly, "he didn't have the time". He was replaced by Katie Hopkins.

In January 2008, McLaren featured as one of the 'celebrity hijackers' in the UK TV series Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, which was broadcast on E4. In his hijack, he encouraged the housemates to remove their clothes, daub themselves in paint and produce an artwork using only their bodies and a bicycle. Also in 2008, New York City public arts group Creative Time premiered nine pieces of Malcolm's 21-part sound painting series Shallow via MTV's massive HD screen in Times Square. The series, which originally premiered at Art 39 Basel in June, was the first instalment of an on-going public arts content partnership between Creative Time and MTV. The complete version of 'Shallow 1–21' was given its full US museum premiere in the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), in Philadelphia, from 24 October 2009 until 3 January 2010.

About his contribution to music, McLaren has said about himself: "I have been called many things: a charlatan, a con man, or, most flatteringly, the culprit responsible for turning British popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick. This is my chance to prove that these accusations are true." At the time of his death McLaren had just finished a new film work entitled Paris.