Wednesday, February 5, 2014

"Lotto Lout" Has Box-Office Potential

A Norfolk man was surprised to find himself acting as a Hollywood agent last month when he received a phone call from a movie producer who wanted to make a movie about "Lotto Lout" Michael Carroll.

Carl Chapman is a long-time friend of Carroll—who had his big National Lottery win in 2002—so when producer Jonathan Sandford, from Art Linson Productions, needed to track down the former refuse collector it was Chapman he turned to for help.

"I looked at my phone and couldn’t work out who was calling," Chapman recalled. "I have friends living abroad, but I just didn’t recognize the number. When I answered it was film producer Jonathan Sandford and he wanted to talk about making a film of Michael's life based on the biography written by Sean Boru."

The media dubbed  Carroll the "Lotto Lout" when he turn turned up to collect his £9.7 million check wearing an electronic tag on his ankle, imposed as punishment for being drunk and disorderly. Although Carroll's initial ambitions seemed pretty tame at the time he was soon using his lottery winnings to fund a wild and extravagant lifestyle that resulted in further court appearances and saw him broke in record time. Its a rags to riches and back to rags story that had has obvious box-office potential.

Carroll has already signed the necessary contracts, and been paid $1,000, but the contracts could be worth a small fortune if and when the movie hits the big screen.