He was Britain's most notorious drug smuggler, a man who managed to send tonnes of marijuana around the world while maintaining a strict anti-gun, anti-violence ethos - at least according to himself. Now Howard Marks, aka "Mr Nice", is to be the subject of a British film which is set to star Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Ifans is in final negotiations to play his fellow Welshman, who spent seven years at Terre Haute jail in Indiana after eventually being brought down by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. During his 20-year career as a drug dealer, the Oxford graduate cultivated ties with members of the IRA and was apparently recruited as a spy by the British secret services.
Sevigny is in talks to play Marks' wife Judy, who lived with him for most of the time that he was dealing drugs. She was herself imprisoned for two years and separated from her three children as a result of her involvement in Marks' affairs. Thewlis will play the IRA man with whom Marks conspired to traffic cannabis through Ireland and on to Britain.
Ivans XTC director Bernard Rose is writing and directing the film, which is based on Marks's 1996 autobiography, Mr Nice. Judy Marks, who is now divorced from Howard, wrote her own version of events, Mr Nice and Mrs Marks, a decade later, but it's not known whether her book will form part of the screenplay.
