Putting the pieces of Ian Curtis back together

My screenplay for Control is based on the memories of the singer's wife, mistress and manager. Together, I hope they build up the full picture.

When I was writing Control I didn't have much hope of it getting made. But I knew that if by some slim chance it did get made, I wanted it to be me who wrote it. I had the emotions in place to click into where Ian was coming from - after reading Debbie Curtis's book Touching From A Distance I knew I could become Ian.

At the heart of it, which you can forget, is a horrible tragedy that is still living. It's not as though the relatives aren't about any more. You've got first generation relatives, a wife and a daughter who are still about, feeling the raw after effects. So it must be hard for her - to want it to happen but at the same time, can she stand up in a theatre and hear applause for a film about her husband's death? She is handling it very well - she knew she wanted it to be told, but I don't think anything can prepare you for this.

I had a close relationship with Debbie, but I knew that for it to work I also had get inside his mistress Annik Honoré's head. No one had talked to Annik in 20-odd years and no one had put her story across. She was very, very wary that it would be wholly based on Debbie's book. They never met, they loved the same guy, it's all very weird. There were a few tears shed, because Annik loved Ian as well, there's no doubt about that.

We met a couple of times in Belgium and spent the days together and by the end I thought: "Thank God I did." Ian was a sensitive guy but he loved two women. The story is quite simple, but if I hadn't met her, it might have been hard to strike the right balance. I think the film comes out kind of equal. It's a guy stuck in the middle of society and society's values with a lot of love. But he knows he can only direct it in one place and when you have to make that decision and you can't then life becomes very difficult.

In the research phase, I had a hitlist of people who knew Ian to go to see to get it right. As a biographer, you've got to be right. Some can try to bully you into presenting their version of Ian - we'd have a showdown and I was just waiting to get "well, you didn't even know Ian" thrown into my face. But Tony Wilson just said: "Fuck 'em, go write the myth". I felt free after getting his permission.

Tony and I talked for two nights, and he had such great insights. After that, I had a voice for the man himself. Who else do you need to talk to? I said "you're gonna love it" and was gutted he never got to see the finished film.

I grew up in the Haçienda like the Beatles grew up in Hamburg, the days and nights opened my eyes to anything creative. When you walked in there was always a picture of Tony in reception, so as you walked in elated because you got in, you would see Tony. And on the way out, after you'd had ten pills and were thinking you were top of the world, you would see him again! You'd go home and dream about him. He used to be the reason for all the decent nights out.

After 24 Hour Party People, he was ridiculed to a certain extent. In this film he is shown as the person who was the springboard for everything the city did and is still doing. Coogan did a great job, and I really enjoyed 24 Hour Party People - although I thought how dare they get a Scouser to write it - but it was a romp. And it was a romp through too many ages, we could get five films out of that!

I think Peter Hook's writing a book about the Haçienda at the moment - we've had a chat. Its resonance still goes on. Acid house and house music, we've not really had the definitive film about it. Human Traffic doesn't stand up today, it's very basic and a bit obvious. We could do a Control-esque version of the Haçienda - it is definitely a place that needs its own film.

So with this film what's happened is that we built it up. There's Debbie's Ian, Tony's Ian, Annik's Ian, my Ian, Anton Corbijn's Ian, then Sam Riley's Ian - it's like each one traced him out and we gradually built up the full picture. Every one made it more vibrant. And if someone doesn't lord Sam with some kind of major award, I'll be very surprised.