Salon Pictures has announced that principal photography on their new feature film, MY NAME IS LENNY, has begun today, taking place over four weeks in Hoxton and Islington. The feature has been acquired for UK by Lionsgate.
MY NAME IS LENNY is based on the true life story of Britain’s most notorious bare-knuckle fighter, Lenny McLean, also known as The Guv’nor. Josh Helman (X-Men: Apocalypse; Mad Max: Fury Road) stars as Britain’s toughest man, with BAFTA winner Chanel Cresswell (This Is England: 90; The Aliens) as his wife, Val McLean, and current UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping (Twin Peaks; xXx: Return of Xander Cage) as his arch rival, Roy ‘Pretty Boy’ Shaw. The supporting cast also features Michael Gambon (Harry Potter series; Hail Caesar), Nick Moran (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1&2) Jennifer Brooke (Astral), Charley Palmer Rothwell (Legend, Ripper Street) and the current bare-knuckle world champion fighter Decca Heggie.
In his later life, Lenny McLean went on to become a bestselling author, and won TV and film roles, the most well known being “Barry the Baptist” in Guy Ritchie’s debut Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, shortly before passing away in 1998.
Salon has also produced the feature documentary The Guv’nor about McLean, which premiered in competition at the East End Film Festival and will be released on DVD from October 10th, again courtesy of Lionsgate.
Paul Van Carter said today:
“Salon is delighted to finally bring the legend of Lenny to life by making an intelligent and intimate film with our amazing cast. This is the second film we have made with the McLean family, and the fourth feature Salon has financed and shot this year. Having also produced for Ron Scalpello we have no doubt that Ron will create a true cult classic, not just thrilling and stylish, but emotional, personal, and touching, too.”
Jamie McLean said today:
“It has been thirty years since someone planted the seed in my dad’s head to make a movie about his life. He never saw that become a reality, and many have tried and failed over the years, but it is with great pride and joy that we are now able to honour my father’s memory and finally tell his incredible story on the big screen, and there’s no better man to take the role of my dad than Josh Helman.”
Directed by Ron Scalpello (Offender; Pressure; Bobby), the screenplay is an original work written by Paul Van Carter (Offender; The Guv’nor) and Martin Askew (Snow In Paradise; Rocknrolla). Writer Paul Van Carter and fellow Salon founder, Nick Taussig, produce, alongside Jamie McLean, son of Lenny, and Michael Mendelsohn of Patriot Pictures, LLC (Vengeance: A Love Story, I Am Wrath, Lord of War, Air Force One, Madness of King George), and Salon’s Christopher J Reynolds executive produces. Mendelsohn’s Union Patriot Capital Inc. will fully finance the picture, and Embankment Films’ Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar are handling international sales, with Lionsgate releasing the film in the UK. Salon Pictures recently wrapped on Jonathan Teplitzky’s CHURCHILL starring Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson.