Brian Helgeland has always been more appreciated as a screenwriter than as a director, largely for his scripts for L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, but with the universal admiration for 42 last year, which he wrote and directed, perhaps his time as a helmer may soon be on the rise.
Word from Screen Daily (via The Playlist) is Helgeland has recruited Tom Hardy to pull double duty as he sets out to tell the true story of twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray.
The working title is Legend and it will chart the tortured and unique relationship between the two brothers, infamous for their criminal exploits in London during the 1950s and 1960s. The script takes in associates, rivals – such as notorious gangster Jack “the Hat” McVitie, who was murdered by Reginald in 1967 – politician Lord Boothby, and the brothers’ nemesis in the police force, DS Leonard “Nipper” Read, who made it his life’s ambition to put the Krays behind bars.
Helgeland’s involvement was first reported back in October 2013 when the LA Wave when Helgeland noted the story would concentrate on the life of Reggie Kray (older by 10 minutes) as he sought to control the psychotic tendencies of his younger twin.
Quoted by the Wave, Helgeland speaks of hanging out in London with well-known Krays’ associate Freddie Foreman (75) saying, “I had drinks with him in his local haunt. When we finished he got up to go and they feted him at the bar. I said to him, ‘what about the bill?’ and he replied, ‘we don’t pay.'”
Hardy hasn’t yet signed on to the project, which is targeting a shoot in the UK later this year, but it sounds like a potentially great story.
