Louis Mellis, the writer behind Sexy Beast and 44 Inch Chest, is set to tackle royalty in his next project, The Princess' Gangster. It's based on the true story of Princess Margaret's* alleged affair with notorious gangster John Bindon in the late 1960s.
Bindon was a bit of a wide boy, serving time in a Borstal institution for possession of ammunition as a young man, but then spotted by Ken Loach and introduced to films, where he went on to appear opposite Mick Jagger in **Performance **and for Stanley Kubrick in Barry Lyndon. He then started dating the daughter of a Baron, who took him on holiday to Mustique, where he is said to have had it off with the Princess (she was apparently Not Amused at the stories in the press to that effect, and denied it).
Bindon also had affairs with Playboy bunny Serena Williams (no, not that one), Christine Keeler (her from Scandal) and David Bowie's future wife Angela - and he acted as a tour manager for Bowie and Led Zeppelin. He is, in other words, the closest the royals ever got to being cool, even if he did later shoot a London gangster called John Darke in the head in 1976 (he was acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defence, with Bob Hoskins appearing as a character witness).
While there's no director or cast attached as yet, surely the big question that remains is how many swear words can be squeezed into this script. Let's have a sweepstake: post your guesses below!
*For those of you who are republicans / anarchists / uninterested / foreign, that's the late sister of the current Queen.