It’s almost 20 years now since ‘Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrels’ crashed into cinemas and launched the carer of fledgling writer /director Guy Ritchie who cast real life hard man Lenny McClean as Barry the Baptist in the film. In real life McClean had been a notorious bare knuckle and now there’s to be a film about his life called ‘My Name is Lenny’.
Principal photography on their new feature film began yesterday taking place over four weeks in Hoxton and Islington. Mclena was also known as The Guv’nor and 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.
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).
MY NAME IS LENNY chronicles Lenny McLean’s origin as a young street fighter in 1970s East End London, the haunting effects of horrific childhood abuse, and his bitter rivalry with Roy Shaw across three unlicensed boxing matches, culminating in Lenny taking the championship title of “The Guv’nor”. In his later life, Lenny McLean went on to become a bestselling author, and won TV and film roles before passing away in 1998.
