Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is to star as Iggy Pop in The Passenger, a biopic of the legendary rocker, according to Variety.

The film follows Pop's early years with his band the Stooges, is to be directed by Nick Gomez (Drowning Mona) from a script by Eric Schmid.

The Passenger with a $6 million-$8 million budget will start filming in next six months and is scheduled to be released by midsummer 2008.

Pop has "given his blessing" to the project but will not take part in it.