Ridley Scott always has so many projects bubbling away in his development kitchen that it’s a wonder he has time to monitor them all. Still, that’s what a production company like Scott Free is for. The delivery truck has backed up to the loading bay, bringing yet another new possibility: Marco Pierre White’s memoir The Devil In The Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness And The Making Of A Great Chef.
Scott has splashed some cash alongside fellow producers Giannina Facio and Colet Abedi to buy the rights to White’s tome, which somewhat unsurprisingly, chronicles his rise to become one of the pioneers of the celebrity chef archetype. It has all the usual ingredients: a riotous childhood, rock star status in the 1980s kitchen scene bristling with other trendy types and his work training the likes of Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay. Oh, and the fact that he was the youngest chef ever to win three Michelin stars, only to give them back, because he don’t need no stinkin’ badges.
Scott is so far set to produce. He may end up behind the camera, or he may, as with the recent American Football head trauma drama Game Brain, set it up for someone else to make. But the story of an enfant terrible who became a famous chef does sound like the sort of alpha personality Scott channels well to the screen. The director’s latest, Exodus: Gods And Kings is set for release on December 26.