Who we’d cast in a new Rolling Stones film

The rumour mill is churning that the Rolling Stones will be the next to get the lavish biopic treatment – following the four separate films that Sam Mendes is making about the Beatles . Yet-to-be-verified insider reports claim that Mick Jagger , Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood have signed a deal with 101 Studios, the company that makes Yellowstone and MobLand on Paramount+.

If the aim is to portray them in their early days – as Jagger has previously suggested he'd prefer – then out goes Wood, since he only joined the band in 1975 . It would be the original line-up of five. Casting them is a degree harder than finding matches for the Fab Four – specifically because you wouldn't want to repeat any of those guys ( Paul Mescal , Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan), who are among the most hyped British/Irish stars of their generation. But it's fun to speculate. Here are five actors of proven gifts who we think could have a crack at it.

Tom Blyth as Mick Jagger

The lips have it. Blyth has easily the biggest fanbase of this crew, with more than a million Instagram followers – largely thanks to his leading role in the Hunger Games prequel . He's the tallest too, at 6ft, and so was Jagger, at 5ft10in. Blyth has been on a roll with gritty British indies lately ( Plainclothes , Wasteman ), which have solidified his standing as a star in the making: exactly the frontman any Stones biopic would be crying out for. He could gyrate, pucker up, do all the required clapping and be pretty damn electrifying.

Fionn Whitehead as Keith Richards

Plucked from nowhere to be the leading man in Dunkirk , Whitehead has a lot of film experience under his belt by now. How much fun would he have – and serve – as Richards? It's exactly the right time for him to grab the spotlight back after a few years of low-key work in this or that. His winningly crooked smile gets us halfway to Keef's famously wonky gnashers. Add a touch of guy-liner, get him to loosen those gangly limbs, and there's heaps of potential here for him to enter his pirate era.

Tom Glynn-Carney as Brian Jones

It's more than just being blond. The Salford-born, 31-year-old Glynn-Carney is best known for his role as a feckless young king in House of the Dragon , after a small part in Dunkirk . He's been impressing for some while, with intense stage roles – most recently in The Oresteia at the Bridge Theatre , in which he was quite brilliant. He could project the magnetic cool in Jones that even awed Jagger, but also the dark, wayward side that saw Jones ejected from the band before his tragic death.

Alex Lawther as Bill Wyman

"The quiet one", with his stone-faced affect, the Stones' bassist was already a married father when he joined the band. Tempting though it might be to cast slightly older, the 31-year-old Lawther has seemed wise beyond his years since he first popped up, as easily the best thing in The Imitation Game , as the young Alan Turing. He's had plenty of lead roles by now, including in the current hit Alien: Earth , and absolutely has the range to be the voice of moderation, taciturn and brooding.

Finn Cole as Charlie Watts

Finn Cole, younger brother of Skins ' Joe, was one of the breakout stars of Peaky Blinders , and has the right kind of face – and talent – to be Charlie Watts, nonchalant dandy of the group, who stayed a little aloof from the surrounding debauchery. Cole was the one thing I liked in the boarding-school comedy Slaughterhouse Rulez , and comes out of just about everything looking good. His chilled charisma would suit this role perfectly.

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