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.
