With Stormbreaker well behind him now (except that people keep mentioning it), I Am Number Four star Alex Pettyfer looks set for big things in Hollywood. Dreamworks are certainly banking on the rising star, with the news that, after Beastly and Now, Pettyfer's next project over the starting line may be the James Hunt biopic **Shunt, based on the just-published biography.
Hunt was the British Formula One world champion in 1976, and his charisma and eccentricity had a lot to do with popularising the sport. Between 1973 and 1979 he drove for Hesketh, McLaren and Wolf, but he was as notorious for his off-the-track behaviour as he was for his rubber-burning.
Fond of a drink and the odd other recreational substance, he was a renowned hellraiser and playboy; dated some of the most glamorous women in the world (his first wife Suzy Millar left him for Richard Burton, breaking up Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's second marriage); and had a friendly but dramatic rivalry with his teammate Niki Lauda. Later in his career he became an outspoken F1 commentator, when he could get a word in around Murray Walker.
Something of a pet project for Pettyfer, he's seizing the day and producing this one himself, along with John Palermo (The Wolverine, Incarceron). Dreamworks currently has the project out to "high end" writers.
Shunt: The Story of James Hunt by Tom Rubython, was published on October 1.