Dev Patel is attached to star while “I, Tonya” and “Cruella” helmer Craig Gillespie is attached to direct the long in the works feature about the genesis of Chippendales strip club and the subsequent murder scandals that followed.
In development for two decades now, Patel would play Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee who emigrated from India to Playa del Rey in California. Bored with pumping gas, he acquires the struggling L.A. rock club Destiny II and transforms it with a new name and theme nights that included female mud wrestling and a “male exotic dance night for ladies only”.
The latter caught on with the public, and soon Banerjee and his partners, including co-creator Paul Snider and attorney Bruce Nahin, were presiding over an empire that earned $8 million a year from club receipts and millions of calendars of its main attraction being sold.
Another key player was Banerjee’s business partner Nick Denoia, an Emmy-winning producer of children’s shows who recruited the musclebound G-string-clad dancers, choreographed their routines and ran a touring company of strippers.
The success story took a very dark turn. Snider’s Playboy bunny girlfriend Dorothy Stratten, who came up with the signature cuffs and collars uniforms, was murdered by Snider who then took his own life. Banerjee was indicted for allegedly orchestrating Denoia’s murder, was charged with having enlisted aid to kill several ex-Chippendales dancers, allegedly intended to have Nahin murdered, and eventually pleaded guilty to attempted arson, racketeering, and murder for hire. He entered into a plea agreement and in early 1994 was found hanged in his cell.
“Lost” alum Naveen Andrews played Banerjee in a 2000 TV movie about the scandal, whilst the late Tony Scott was at one point working on his own version of the story.
Several studios are reportedly pursuing this project with a decision expected shortly. Craig Williams penned the most recent draft, taking over from Isaac Adamson. David Permut will produce.
Source: Deadline
