Posted in: Movies | Tagged: convention, doctor who, entertainment, film, in the ring, the mild bunch, tony lee, wrestling

Tony Lee, Mild Bunch And In The Ring At Long Island Doctor Who Convention

At this weekend's Long Island Doctor Who convention, Tony Lee had a few things to say about his upcoming work, passed on to us by a couple of Little Bleeders in the audience of his One on One and The Mild Bunch panels.

The film The Mild Bunch now has a director, White Noise and Keeping Mum's Niall Johnson, but we also learned that the musical score is to be written by Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards Vs. Aliens composer Sam Watts. Frazer Hines also repeatedly stated that he wanted Roger Moore's daughter Debra to play his love interest, Maisy – but this casting idea was poo poohed by Lee, who said that a variety of other actresses were being spoken to, and that the cast was shaping up to be an "Expendables of 90's Light Entertainment Stars".

Other potential cast members included the already attached Colin Baker and Vicki Michelle, but also names like Anjli Mohindra, John Challis, Denis Lawson, Paul McGann and Tom Hollander were mentioned. Lee hopes filming is hoped to begin in August 2015.

Tony's 'One on One' panel gave a few more insights into his upcoming work. He was a little cagey on his comic side, saying that he'd had meetings with both DC and Marvel while in New York and was excited about a possible "thing" in the future. He spoke about Cartel, the film he's co-written with Andy Briggs, saying that it's "a full on action movie, but incredibly real" starring Cliffhanger actor Craig Fairbrass. "It's like Get Carter in Puerto Rico" Lee explained, adding that Fairbrass was on board for every aspect of the project and has made it "a thousand times better with his experience and input." With a final draft being finished when he returns to the UK, he hopes that Cartel will film early 2014.

Bigger news was that Tony is scripting a wrestling-themed movie called In The Ring, starring and co-developed by wrestling stars Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. Both well known in the comic scene, Daniels wrote the introduction to Tony's 2013 MTV collection of The Gloom.

Tony pitched it as The Wrestler meets Major League, by way of Step Up, Rocky and This Is Spinal Tap, when a small federation is forced to start from the beginning upwards, throwing together a team of "misfit toys" who take the battle to the bad guys of the movie in a "winner takes all" finale. When asked whether the film would keep the "kayfabe" of wrestling being "real" Lee stated in reply "Wrestling is real. Watch the face of any small child in an arena watching a fight between good and bad. To them it's 100% on the line, they have no idea who'll win. And that's the audience we're aiming for."

The final part of his talk was spent talking about his recent Baker Street Irregulars stage play adaptation, with Lee saying that there had been interest in other cities taking the play, and that now Sherlock Holmes was public domain, the possibility of an off-off-Broadway production was suddenly very much on the table.

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