Separated at birth ... Max Mosley (left) and Charlton Heston
Roll credits on Film of the News, the first in a mooted series of DIY movie productions loosely based on the big story of the week. (Note the "mooted", which allows us to quietly mothball the series in the event of it dying on its arse. Crafty, huh?)
First up it's the Max Mosley Story, which remains a working title. Chances are it may wind up re-christened The Max Moberly Story as a sop to the lawyers and to allow us free rein with all those disputed Nazi allegations which absolutely-positively have to find a home. It is the tale of a charismatic motor-sport martinet, descended from a corroded line of blue-bloods and finally brought low by the ghosts of his past (in the form of a goose-stepping dominatrix).
The Max Moberly Story is a classic human story, a saga of triumph and disaster. And semi-naked Nazis. But will it be played as a tragedy, farce or hard-hitting social drama? We need a genre, and we need to know the best person to direct it.
Most crucially, we need a principal cast. How inconvenient that Charlton Heston has already departed for the great rifle range in the sky - he would have made a fine Moberly. We also need a Jean Moberly (who might look a bit like this entirely unrelated woman), his faithful, oblivious wife. We need a dominatrix (who doesn't?). And we also need a ghost - the phantom of mean old Moberly Sr, constantly popping up to urge his son towards further mischief.
To recap, we have a title and two-thirds of a plot. But we need a genre, a director, a cast, and perhaps even a grand resolution. Basically we need a producer - and that's where you come in.
