EXCLUSIVE: The extraordinary exploits of convicted fraudster Russell King shall be recounted in King of All Cons (WT), a characteristic doc that has simply gone into manufacturing. Emmy-nominated Sprint Photos is making the movie with Sky within the UK and Matthew Lorenzo Productions, the indie arrange by the titular Lorenzo, a former Sky Sports activities presenter.
People who King duped included Sven Goran Eriksson, the one-time England soccer group supervisor, as a part of an notorious scheme to purchase Notts County, the world’s oldest soccer membership. The movie will use a mixture of archive and interviews with the primary gamers on the story, together with Eriksson — who disclosed a terminal most cancers analysis in January. Former England soccer star Sol Campbell additionally options.
King’s different nefarious exploits embrace negotiating a deal to extract all of North Korea’s mineral reserves. The motion within the movie strikes between Bahrain, North Korea, London’s plush Dorchester Lodge, the UK’s monetary district and Meadow Lane, the standard dwelling of Notts County.
Lorenzo, a widely known face to UK sports activities followers as a former presenter on Sky Sports activities, has a private reference to the King of All Cons story as a result of the fraudster at one time recruited him to deal with his PR.
Lorenzo’s manufacturing banner and Sprint have labored collectively beforehand on tasks together with Hurst: The First and Solely about England World Cup profitable soccer captain Geoff Hurst, which additionally performed on Sky. “We work properly collectively and between us we now have the fitting expertise to get probably the most out of an enormous story: to deliver out the drama and the emotion, and to provide a few of King’s victims an opportunity to have their say,” he mentioned.
Sprint founder Daniel Sharp exec produces. “Leaving a path of destruction in his wake, Russell King dedicated fraud after fraud, every yet another fantastical than the final,” he mentioned. “That is documentary gold – comical, surprising, often horrific however at all times entertaining and continuously underwritten by a way of malice and lack of empathy.”
The movie will bow on Sky Documentaries within the UK and on Sky streaming service NOW. The extraordinary story of King’s actions “at first seems prefer it may solely be a piece of fiction,” mentioned Jack Oliver, Head of Co-Productions on the pay TV large. “However it actually occurred, and Matt was there because it all unraveled… we will’t wait to see this complicated and character-driven documentary come to life.”