LONDON — Paul Raymond, the late real estate mogul and adult entertainment maverick who founded London's first fully nude strip club, The Raymond Revuebar, and launched publications Club International and Mayfair, is now the subject of two upcoming biopics.
Both projects are currently titled "King of Soho," the name given to Raymond by the press during the '70s when he invested his adult entertainment earnings in real estate, purchasing numerous properties in London's Soho neighborhood.
Michael Winterbottom ("The Killer Inside Me") is directing the Revolution Films' biopic that is now in production with "Hamlet 2's" Steve Coogan in the role of Raymond. The film, slated for release next year, costars Anna Friel as Raymond's wife Jean, Tamsin Egerton as his mistress Fiona Richmond, Imogen Poots as his daughter Debbie, who was set to inherit the family business, but died in 1992 of a drug overdose, and Matthew Beard as his son Howard.
The real Howard Raymond, meanwhile, has not only announced plans to produce his own "King of Soho" movie with Wolf Studio Ltd producing, but has trademarked the title as intellectual property belonging to Mr. Raymond's Provincial and Metropolitan Property Company.
The news has surprised Revolution Films.
“We knew Howard was making a film but didn’t realize it was going to use the same title as ours,” co-producer Josh Hyams told British website DailyMail.com. “We had very good relations with him and I hoped it would remain that way. We could easily have done a hatchet job on his father but we haven’t done that at all. On the contrary, we have treated him respectfully and with warmth.”
Howard told the site that he met with Winterbottom three years ago to discuss the film, but felt the project wasn’t right for him. “I had 13 different offers from film companies around the world who wanted to make a movie about my father’s life,” he said. “I felt Wolf Studio presented the best case. It’s about the private persona of our family life, as opposed to the public persona. That’s why I went with them.”
Paul Raymond died of respiratory failure in 2008 at the age of 82.
