Craig Gillespie Boards Dev Patel-starrer ‘Chippendales’ As Director

Los Angeles: “I, Tonya” director Craig Gillespie has signed on to helm “Chippendales”, based on a real life story. A source close to the production told Variety, Gillespie is officially on board to direct the movie, featuring “Lion” star Dev Patel.

Patel, who was announced to headline the film in 2017, will play Steve Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who acquires the struggling LA club Destiny II and transforms it into a hot spot. The club, which gave a platform to the then famous ‘Chippendales’ theatre group, takes a hit when Banerjee’s co-creator Paul Snider kills Banerjee’s playboy bunny girlfriend Dorothy Stratten, sending the protagonist into a downward spiral of legal battles.

“Chippendales” has been in development for two decades by Permut Productions’ David Permut. Bold Films is also set to produce, and Craig Williams has written the latest draft of the script. Gillespie is also direction “Cruella”, the live-action adaptation of “101 Dalmations” villain Cruella de Vil, featuring Emma Stone. Patel was last seen in Armando Iannucci’s “The Personal History of David Copperfield”, based on Charles Dickens’ classic novel, and the Amazon series “Modern Love”.