Tony Scott to direct the rise and fall of Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Denzel Washington may need to give his other great collaborator Spike Lee a call and get Inside Man 2 off the ground and moving to a production start, as Tony Scott may be looking for pastures new. Variety say that after four action blockbusters with Washington (Man on Fire, Deja Vu, Taking of Pelham 123 and the late 2010 released runaway train movie Unstoppable) in five years, Scott is getting set to venture off into the world of 80s male American strip clubs. Bizarre right? - The trades say he is to direct a film about the rise and fall of Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee (who was an Indian immigrant... so definitely no Washington here), whose life was consumed by excess, paranoia and fierce competition. Does that mean no gun fights, no frantic zooms and no flashy jump cuts this time? Can Scott really calm himself down, or will his focus with the camera be on oiled up, muscular men in bow ties and cuffs? What a thought, eh? The Chippendales were formed with "the intention to do more than just provide the performance of a striptease, but to bring women's fantasies to life". The plan is to make it in a True Romance style, which I guess means a highly stylised, kind of lighthearted vehicle even if the life of Banerjee went to some dark, dark places...

Banerjee, who went from pumping gas in Culver City to running a high-end nightclub that evolved into Chippendales. After hiring a New York choreographer to polish the all-male dance troupe, Banerjee became wildly rich, as well as unreasonably competitive and paranoid. Banerjee hired a hitman to murder the choreographer when negotiations went sour. After being arrested, Banerjee died in jail awaiting trial.

Now you're hooked right, you're hooked by what actually is a pretty interesting and shocking life story - a one that isn't widely told and actually very cinematic. This ain't no Full Monty kind of comedy. It's my guess that Scott stumbled across a pitch by Lisa Schrager (who was a few as yet undeveloped screenplays floating around, including one for Nicole Kidman) who herself is adapting a manuscript by Rodney Sheldon... and was blown over by the how interesting the story was. Where this project will fit into Scott's future though is anyone's guess. We know he keeps talking about remaking The Warriors and that would seem to be the favourite for this next picture, so maybe this one will be ready to roll once he's done with that. Oh and if you catch Scott in any male stripclubs, it's only because he's doing research. Honest!