Sam Riley has been cast as leadsinger Ian Curtis and Alexandra Maria Lara as his lover Annikon music video director Anton Corbijn's Control, his fact-based debut feature onUK post-punk band Joy Division.

It is a first big role for newcomerRiley - the troubled Curtis was in his early 20s when he committed suicide in1980 - whereas Lara played Hitler's secretary in Downfall and has just finished work on Francis Ford Coppola's Youth By Youthalongside Bruno Ganz and Tim Roth.

It was already known that SamanthaMorton would play Deborah Curtis, who wrote the book on which Matt Greenhalgh's script is based. Curtis will also get aco-producer credit, as will former Joy Division manager and Factory Recordsfounder Tony Wilson, the subject of thebiopic 24 Hour Party People. Theproducers are Orian Williams and Todd Eckert from Claraflora.

Sales agent Becker has sold Control to Momentum for the UK, Paradiso for Benelux, Dendy for Australia and La Fabrique de Films for France. It aims to do more pre-sales at EFM.

The Control team is still closing finance but hopes to being shootingin mid-2006 in Manchester, Macclesfield and other areas of England.

The film's title was inspired bythe classic Joy Division song She's LostControl. New Order, the band that succeeded Joy Division, will be recordingnew tracks for the film and the soundtrack album will feature a number ofre-recorded Joy Division songs.

Corbijn has worked on U2, Depeche Mode,Nirvana and Metallica videos and is also known forhis photographs of such musicians as the late Miles Davis, R.E.M., David Bowieand Elvis Costello.