FILM IDEA / PITCH
Aug 6, 2007 11:42:03 GMT
Post by astraburton on Aug 6, 2007 11:42:03 GMT
Ive no doubt you get quite a few on here but seeing as i'm from Burton on Trent and really admire shane and Paddy i thought this would be the best place to start.
Milo books are interested in this story and having sent them the first 2 chapters they have requested the full book now (slight problem as its only half way through
)
This is a true story about my life although for the purposes of this ive just touched on some of the main plots
Born in Burton on Trent in 1976 i had a totally normal and boring childhood, nothing exciting happen at all, Went to school, came home, watched "Jimbo" then went out on our bikes, that was pretty much it my life for 17 years, (not the "jimbo" , i grew out of that when i was about 11, i meant the normal life).
Then at 17 my life changed.
I was at work doing my normal job in my normal life and a female member of staff came up to me and said "They havent told you yet have they? " , "who hasnt told me what?. She sat me down to explain how my father had been married previously and fathered 4 girls, then ran off with my mother and had me and my sister. After a bit of research this all turned out to be true, i confronted my parents and there words still stick in my head to this day "Its nothing to do with you, it happend before you were born". They are the last words i spoke to my parents in 14 years.
After this shock revelation my life started heading down hill, I quit my job, started drinking most days and my life was heading downhill. I was angry all the time and no way to get rid of the anger until i started going to football, I found a place where lots of angry men went most weekends, but the shouting soon turned into violence and before i knew it i was heading up the ranks of one of the most feared firms in the country (and for all those now guessing the DLF, dont be silly, i said feared firms
)
When you get close to the top of most football firms in this country i soon learned its all about drugs, not the violence at all. You can have 100 lads on a train to Milwall and most of them will want some coke or phet before they get down there, if your the top lad, your the supplier, simple as, you have a captive market, there your boys and will only buy off you. you get very rich very quick.
I eventually got a 5 year banning order a several convictions but this didnt stop you going to the game, it made you more of a hero, so even if you werent allowed in the ground you still travelled, you'll find with banning orders more and more common that most firms are in the town centres before games causing more trouble, at least when we were allowed in they could contain us, now its a big free for all in most town centres on a staurday.
As my reputation grew, I got closer and closer to the top but my anger still didnt go away, from being a mild mannered young man i turned into an animal and i couldnt see it, i lost all my friends, never had any serious relationships, my life was going no where. Sure , i a had a very nice car and a very nice house but somehow my life was so empty.
In 2000 i went one step too far, a man who owed me some money was refusing to pay up for weeks and i was losing patience, One night i got a few lads together and we went to his house a gave him a old fashion hiding, i then went to his unit and torched it, little did i know he wasnt insured, he lost everything, Thats the first time in 7 years i'd felt guilt about anything i'd done, later that week i was picked up and questioned by the police, after a long and complicated legal battle i agreed to go guilt on the GBH charge but nothing else, this was accepted by the CPS and was awaiting sentencing, I must admit i was scared of prison, no matter how many films or programmes you watch can ever prepare you for the true horror of a C cat prison. It was this fear that led me to do a runner to Mallorca, i had friends there, they set me up working, got a new ID, i got a place and life was sweet for a few years, Right up until i got a phone call off my sister, my dad had passed away aged 67. I hadnt spoke to him for nearly ten years but i was devestated, I had to be a the funeral but how would i get there without being picked up, i spoke to my solicitors and they arranged a conference call with Staffs police, they gave me and my solicitor thier word that if i came back i wouldnt be picked up until after the funeral. For what a coppers word is worth i accpeted. True to their word i was allowed to go to the funeral without any police bother, It was an emotional reunion with my family and that night i handed myself in at the local police staion. When i got to Stafford crown i was given 4 years 9 months inside and 2 months on top for running off and was sent to winson green prison, a Hell Hole, i know prisons aren't supposed to be a nice place but i wouldn't let rats live in that place, although they did, as well as cockroaches. It was while inside that i mad the decision to turn my back on my previous life and go back to being that normal boring lad.
Things never do go to plan do they.........
I was trained in prison by the samaritans to become a listener, this is an inmate who can be called upon at any time day or night to talk to suicidal or prisoners who are finding it hard to cope, It was on one "call out" i met another inmate called @@@@. Over the next 3 months out chats got more and more in depth until he confessed the most shocking crime i'd ever heard, over 20 years ago he's raped an murdered a 78 year old. Just think about that for a minute. Your alone in a cell with someone who's just confessed that, a nonce, a wrong un. what would you have done?? Battered him to death with a chair leg? walked out of his cell? I did neither i sat there and listened as he told me all about the crime, it was shocking to say the least but it was helping him, and thats all i was meant to do, listen and help. It was hard but this is very difficuly for me to admit but i actually liked the guy, what he did was sick and if i see something similar on TV today im shouting in the back ground "hang him", but i actually like him as a person. Then one day i was called to a "legal meeting with my solictior", My case had been closed over a year now so why would my solicitor want to speak to me? , i was taken to a "legal room " where i met two smart men in suits, immediately i knew they were coppers, "We understand youve been talking to @@@@, We'd like you to help us".........................."Be a grass??? are you having a laugh...F@uck right off now" with that i called for a screw to let me out, as i was waiting one of the coppers said "that could have been your Gran, your mum think about that and we'll be in touch".
A month went by with that thought in my head, I couldnt grass, my life would be over, How could i face anyone again, how could i see the old mates, go to the same pubs , i was a dirty rat a grass............It then dawned on me, that is what i wanted, a normal life back, 9 - 5 job normal life, not the old life.
It was over 3 years coming to court, by which time i was released, after my 145 pages of statements were given to @@@@ i was put into protective custody as i'd named people in the killing that werent yet on remand and in mine and @@@@'s conversations i'd given away to many details of my old life and could easily be traced. I had to give 3 days of evidence in the dock at the old bailey, I didnt know how big this case was but it was massive, the government and Mi5 were accused of killing this woman for years, ministers had resigned over it, i had to be sneaked in and out the court in a prison van because there was so much press attention from all over the world, the judge had to put a press ban on naming me instead i could only be refered to as Mr C. After a 6 week trial @@@@@ was sent to prison for life for murder rape and kidnapp and the Judge praised me for my actions that led to his conviction, I was offered full protective custody but i refused, i moved away and happily now do a 9 to 5 job, ive even got a wife now and 2 kids, my relationship with my mum is stronger than ever and im happy, The anger has finally gone, i just wish i could have told my dad that.
Thats a very very brief outline of the book
I feel it would do well as a British film, my only concern is the fact its a bit like "Football factory", meets "the business", meets "shawshank" etc....... and im not sure if the public isnt a little bored of all that stuff?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and
What are your thoughts??
Milo books are interested in this story and having sent them the first 2 chapters they have requested the full book now (slight problem as its only half way through
)This is a true story about my life although for the purposes of this ive just touched on some of the main plots
Born in Burton on Trent in 1976 i had a totally normal and boring childhood, nothing exciting happen at all, Went to school, came home, watched "Jimbo" then went out on our bikes, that was pretty much it my life for 17 years, (not the "jimbo" , i grew out of that when i was about 11, i meant the normal life).
Then at 17 my life changed.
I was at work doing my normal job in my normal life and a female member of staff came up to me and said "They havent told you yet have they? " , "who hasnt told me what?. She sat me down to explain how my father had been married previously and fathered 4 girls, then ran off with my mother and had me and my sister. After a bit of research this all turned out to be true, i confronted my parents and there words still stick in my head to this day "Its nothing to do with you, it happend before you were born". They are the last words i spoke to my parents in 14 years.
After this shock revelation my life started heading down hill, I quit my job, started drinking most days and my life was heading downhill. I was angry all the time and no way to get rid of the anger until i started going to football, I found a place where lots of angry men went most weekends, but the shouting soon turned into violence and before i knew it i was heading up the ranks of one of the most feared firms in the country (and for all those now guessing the DLF, dont be silly, i said feared firms
)When you get close to the top of most football firms in this country i soon learned its all about drugs, not the violence at all. You can have 100 lads on a train to Milwall and most of them will want some coke or phet before they get down there, if your the top lad, your the supplier, simple as, you have a captive market, there your boys and will only buy off you. you get very rich very quick.
I eventually got a 5 year banning order a several convictions but this didnt stop you going to the game, it made you more of a hero, so even if you werent allowed in the ground you still travelled, you'll find with banning orders more and more common that most firms are in the town centres before games causing more trouble, at least when we were allowed in they could contain us, now its a big free for all in most town centres on a staurday.
As my reputation grew, I got closer and closer to the top but my anger still didnt go away, from being a mild mannered young man i turned into an animal and i couldnt see it, i lost all my friends, never had any serious relationships, my life was going no where. Sure , i a had a very nice car and a very nice house but somehow my life was so empty.
In 2000 i went one step too far, a man who owed me some money was refusing to pay up for weeks and i was losing patience, One night i got a few lads together and we went to his house a gave him a old fashion hiding, i then went to his unit and torched it, little did i know he wasnt insured, he lost everything, Thats the first time in 7 years i'd felt guilt about anything i'd done, later that week i was picked up and questioned by the police, after a long and complicated legal battle i agreed to go guilt on the GBH charge but nothing else, this was accepted by the CPS and was awaiting sentencing, I must admit i was scared of prison, no matter how many films or programmes you watch can ever prepare you for the true horror of a C cat prison. It was this fear that led me to do a runner to Mallorca, i had friends there, they set me up working, got a new ID, i got a place and life was sweet for a few years, Right up until i got a phone call off my sister, my dad had passed away aged 67. I hadnt spoke to him for nearly ten years but i was devestated, I had to be a the funeral but how would i get there without being picked up, i spoke to my solicitors and they arranged a conference call with Staffs police, they gave me and my solicitor thier word that if i came back i wouldnt be picked up until after the funeral. For what a coppers word is worth i accpeted. True to their word i was allowed to go to the funeral without any police bother, It was an emotional reunion with my family and that night i handed myself in at the local police staion. When i got to Stafford crown i was given 4 years 9 months inside and 2 months on top for running off and was sent to winson green prison, a Hell Hole, i know prisons aren't supposed to be a nice place but i wouldn't let rats live in that place, although they did, as well as cockroaches. It was while inside that i mad the decision to turn my back on my previous life and go back to being that normal boring lad.
Things never do go to plan do they.........
I was trained in prison by the samaritans to become a listener, this is an inmate who can be called upon at any time day or night to talk to suicidal or prisoners who are finding it hard to cope, It was on one "call out" i met another inmate called @@@@. Over the next 3 months out chats got more and more in depth until he confessed the most shocking crime i'd ever heard, over 20 years ago he's raped an murdered a 78 year old. Just think about that for a minute. Your alone in a cell with someone who's just confessed that, a nonce, a wrong un. what would you have done?? Battered him to death with a chair leg? walked out of his cell? I did neither i sat there and listened as he told me all about the crime, it was shocking to say the least but it was helping him, and thats all i was meant to do, listen and help. It was hard but this is very difficuly for me to admit but i actually liked the guy, what he did was sick and if i see something similar on TV today im shouting in the back ground "hang him", but i actually like him as a person. Then one day i was called to a "legal meeting with my solictior", My case had been closed over a year now so why would my solicitor want to speak to me? , i was taken to a "legal room " where i met two smart men in suits, immediately i knew they were coppers, "We understand youve been talking to @@@@, We'd like you to help us".........................."Be a grass??? are you having a laugh...F@uck right off now" with that i called for a screw to let me out, as i was waiting one of the coppers said "that could have been your Gran, your mum think about that and we'll be in touch".
A month went by with that thought in my head, I couldnt grass, my life would be over, How could i face anyone again, how could i see the old mates, go to the same pubs , i was a dirty rat a grass............It then dawned on me, that is what i wanted, a normal life back, 9 - 5 job normal life, not the old life.
It was over 3 years coming to court, by which time i was released, after my 145 pages of statements were given to @@@@ i was put into protective custody as i'd named people in the killing that werent yet on remand and in mine and @@@@'s conversations i'd given away to many details of my old life and could easily be traced. I had to give 3 days of evidence in the dock at the old bailey, I didnt know how big this case was but it was massive, the government and Mi5 were accused of killing this woman for years, ministers had resigned over it, i had to be sneaked in and out the court in a prison van because there was so much press attention from all over the world, the judge had to put a press ban on naming me instead i could only be refered to as Mr C. After a 6 week trial @@@@@ was sent to prison for life for murder rape and kidnapp and the Judge praised me for my actions that led to his conviction, I was offered full protective custody but i refused, i moved away and happily now do a 9 to 5 job, ive even got a wife now and 2 kids, my relationship with my mum is stronger than ever and im happy, The anger has finally gone, i just wish i could have told my dad that.
Thats a very very brief outline of the book
I feel it would do well as a British film, my only concern is the fact its a bit like "Football factory", meets "the business", meets "shawshank" etc....... and im not sure if the public isnt a little bored of all that stuff?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and
What are your thoughts??
.
