Killing Bono is a film about a man and his dreams of taking his band to stardom that are shattered by his friend and classmate from school, Bono. It seemed that Neil McCormick and his band were always one step behind Bono and his, U2, and while they made it, the McCormick brothers flopped.

The trailer has arrived online and while there's a good cast to it and the man playing Bono has captured some of the look of him, the trailer plays it out as a one joke, uninteresting story.

The film is based on a book by Neil McCormick himself called Killing Bono: I Was Bono's Doppelganger ( / ) and it's far from boring, well those who have read it say that.

Here's an Amazon blurb for the book:

Everyone wants to be famous. But as a young punk in Dublin in the 1970s, Neil McCormick's ambitions went way beyond mere pop stardom. It was his destiny to be a veritable Rock God. He had it all worked out: the albums, the concerts, the quest for world peace. There was only one thing he hadn't counted on. The boy sitting on the other side of the classroom had plans of his own.

Killing Bono is a story of divergent lives. As Bono and his band U2 ascended to global superstardom, his school friend Neil scorched a burning path in quite the opposite direction. Bad drugs, weird sex, bizarre haircuts: Neil experienced it all in his elusive quest for fame. But sometimes it is life's losers who have the most interesting tales to tell.

Featuring guest appearances by the Pope, Bob Dylan, and a galaxy of stars, Killing Bono offers an extremely funny, startlingly candid, and strangely moving account of a life lived in the shadows of superstardom.

"The problem with knowing you is that you've done everything I ever wanted to," Neil once complained to his famous friend. "I'm your doppelganger," Bono replied. "If you want your life back, you'll have to kill me."

Now there was a thought...

The film does look as though it carries the exact same idea and run with it, but the trailer doesn't look like it's doing anything other than play on the Bono and U2 were just here joke, never mind such unbelievable moments as the Irish band not realising that Ireland would be turning out to see the Pope arrive the same day as their gig, the day after U2 had played.

It all seems a bit contrived and painful, and perhaps that's the true story, but as the trailer says, the film is most true, and that was said ironically by the poorly chosen voice over man.

The cast is interesting though, Ben Barnes, Charlie Cox, Peter Serafinowicz, Pete Postlethwaite, Luke Treadaway and more, with McCann looking surprisingly like Bono at times, and is directed by Nick Hamm who directed The Hole.

It sounds as though it might have some greatness to it, but the trailer tells otherwise, and no appearance from U2 themselves? Well let's hope there is later in the film.

Here's the trailer from Deadline Hollywood Daily for you. What do you think? One joke stretched too far?