Horse racing legend AP McCoy’s final season in the saddle is to be turned into a film.
Being AP is a planned feature-length documentary about the recently-retired rider’s quest to become Champion Jockey for an incredible 20th successive season.
The jockey, who rode an incredible 289 winners in a single season, bowed out in April following a remarkable career.
Filmmakers were granted unprecedented access to the usually private McCoy who is widely recognised as “the greatest jockey of all time” and the flick is set to be in cinemas by the end of the year.
It’s one of a number of projects announced by BBC Films as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this week.
Others include a fresh take on Dickens’ David Copperfield, adapted by Edinburgh writer Armando Iannucci, and a film about the 2006 murders of prostitutes in Ipswich by serial killer Steve Wright.
“David Copperfield is an amazing story and Armando is hugely passionate about it,” said Christine Langan, head of BBC Films. “He is a Dickens aficionado, so he wants it to be very authentic but it will have his own sensitivity.”
Comedian Ricky Gervais, will also be directing, writing and starring in a spin-off of The Office, called Life on the Road after securing funding from BBC Films and Entertainment One, a Canadian indie film company.
The mockumentary-style film will continue the story of Gervais’s character David Brent as the wannabe rockstar attempts to break into the music business with his band Foregone Conclusion.
“I’m so excited that the world will see what David Brent is up to now and where his future lies,” Gervais said. “This film delves much more into his private life than The Office ever did and we really get to peel back the layers of this extraordinary, ordinary man.”
The 53-year-old has already written new songs for the film. He performed several UK gigs in character as part of Foregone Conclusion last year and launched a YouTube channel featuring “Learn Guitar” videos.
The new projects will prove a fillip to BBC Films, while other BBC departments face an uncertain future under the critical eye of new Culture Secretary John Whittingdale.
In 2013 it saw its best year in terms of profits to date, with Philomena, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and Saving Mr Banks, a co-production with Walt Disney Pictures, all topping the box office on release.
BBC Films has an annual budget of £12m to cover production and development along with staff costs, with any return on their investments added to the budget.
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