The life and times of Tinseltown’s coolest cat, Steve McQueen are being developed as a feature in a collaborative production between Lake Forest Entertainment and The Exchange. The two outfits recently secured financing for the biopic, which has gained notoriety on the Hollywood circuit in recent times. Thought to be one of the hottest un-produced concepts, McQueen has caught the attention of many big name directors and A-listers in the past.
According to Deadline, there’s one reason for such a vast array of attracted parties. While the project will mainly be based on Marshall Terrill’s heavily-researched biography, Steve McQueen: The Life And Legend Of A Hollywood Icon, there’s another mysterious element that has everyone’s interests piqued.
Apparently, the project will combine parts of Terrill’s book along with “a unique story that is being kept under wraps about McQueen’s life that he wrote about at the time of his death in his own hand.”
Two names are heading up a shortlist to steer the aptly-titled McQueen. The Immigrant director James Gray and star Jeremy Renner are at the top of that list, along with Channing Tatum and Ryan Gosling, who previously showed interest in tackling the leading role. No word on whether any of them are still in contention, but they are both certainly intriguing prospects.
The Exchange’s Brian O’Shea and Jeff Bowler (head of acquisitions) will produce with Graham Kaye’s Lake Forest Entertainment. In a statement discussing the project, O’Shea iterated that the film won’t be your run-of-the-mill true life tale: “We’re figuring out how to tell the story now. It won’t be the obvious biopic.”
He then went on to discuss the ‘secret’ element of the flick:
“Barbara McQueen (McQueen’s last wife) has a diary that was kept by his nurse in Mexico that was then given to the author of the book that was done on him by Marshall Terrill. Something happened in McQueen’s life that has been kept secret for a long time. We think we have a very interesting way into this story.”
What’s more interesting is that Terrill didn’t include this within his definitive tell-all, but he may have omitted it for artistic and/or legal reasons. Whatever the enigmatic tidbit may be, there will inevitably be a wealth of talent circling the Steve McQueen biopic in the coming weeks.
