A mooted £60m Hollywood adaptation of Nigel Farage and Arron Banks’ roles in the Brexit campaign is unlikely to happen, the publisher of the book it was due to be based on has said.
It was reported last year that a major Hollywood studio was poised to sign a deal with Farage and Banks, who bankrolled Leave.EU, to make a film of Banks’ diary of the referendum campaign The Bad Boys of Brexit.
In an article still available on the website of Biteback, the book’s publisher, it was claimed casting was due to take place last autumn. Farage and Banks were reported to be in line to be executive producers, as well as LBC radio presenter Iain Dale who published the book.
Dale, who was said to be signing the deal with Banks and his aide Andy Wigmore in the US in October of last year, told The Telegraph: “Having conquered Europe it seems The Bad Boys of Brexit are about to woo Hollywood.
“The main question is whether Danny DeVito is available to play Arron Banks. I just hope the writers can capture the humour and chaos displayed in the book.”
But today it emerged nothing had come of the film and that Dale had never been to a meeting.
According to London’s Evening Standard, Dale described Banks as having a touch of the ‘fantasist’ about him.
He said: ‘There was all this thing about the Hollywood movie. Obviously I got quite excited, because you have dollar signs appearing in your eyes and think, ‘Well, that could be quite a lucrative one’. Nothing’s ever come of it.
‘Strangely, given I held the rights, I never actually got to go [to the meetings]. And whenever I said I need to meet these people, there was always an excuse why I couldn’t.’
Kevin Spacey, whose copybook has since been somewhat blotted, or Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberatch had been previously tipped to play Farage.
However, the famously demure MEP had different ideas when asked by the Telegraph, saying: ‘I am hoping if they do make the film, I think I should play me. I am really good at being me.
‘It will be about Brexit and the start of the revolution of 2016, how Brexit stunned the establishment and led to directly to the victory of Donald J Trump.’
The story was apparently to be told from the point of view of Gerry Gunster, a US pollster who advised the Leave.EU campaign.
Bad Boys of Brexit joins an inglorious list of British celebrity biopics which, despite being heavily trailed, have yet to make it to the screen, including Jamie Vardy, Gareth Thomas, Guy Goma and a woman who threw eggs at Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent in 2013.
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