Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013: #85. Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love

The Look of Love

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writer(s): Matt Greenhalgh
Producer(s): Melissa Parmenter
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Imogen Poots, Anna Friel, Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Tamsin Egerton and Matt Lucas

He just premiered Everyday at TIFF (the film production lasted over five years) and before anyone has the time to notice, Michael Winterbottom is already pitching us a new biopic. The prolific filmmaker works best when he teams with Steve Coogan and when he examines a part of England’s cultural fabric as is the case with The Look of Love.

Gist: Scripted by Matt Greenhalgh, this is the story of the business and personal life of club proprietor and porn publisher Paul Raymond. After starting his showbusiness career as a mind-reader in a cabaret act, Paul Raymond went on to become Britain’s richest man and a modern King Midas. With an entrepreneurial eye and a realization that sex sells, he began building his empire of gentleman’s clubs, porn magazines and nude theatre – provoking outrage and titillation in equal measure. Raymond’s personal life was as colorful as his revue shows. Coogan will play the eponymous ”King of Soho,” a nickname given to Raymond by the press due to his huge club and property empire.

Release Date: World premiere showing at Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres section, this will be released in the U.K come March. Expect a distributor such as IFC Films to grab the title at the fest.