Nick Moorcroft

Moorcroft was born in 1978 in Chelmsford, Essex. In an interview with Dalya Alberge, a journalist from The Observer, he revealed he was expelled from school when he was fourteen. His mother encouraged him to audition for the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art where he won a scholarship to study at the prestigious drama school before embarking on a career as a screenwriter and film producer.[1]

In 2004 he sold his first spec script to Barnaby Thompson's Fragile Films. The period comedy called Burke & Hare is about two Irish serial killers who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection.[2] In Variety, an entertainment industry newspaper, the article "The 'Brit List' circulates British film community" by film journalist Adam Dawtrey, reported that the screenplay was included on the Brit List: 2007,[3] which lists the most liked and recommended unproduced screenplays in the UK and Ireland.

In 2006 Moorcroft wrote the screenplay for St Trinian's, a film based on the cartoons by British cartoonist, Ronald Searle, for Ealing Studios.[4] It was reported in Screen International that the schoolgirl comedy, based on the cartoons by Ronald Searle, had a budget of $13m (£6.5m) and took $26m (£13m) at the UK box office alone, making it the then third most successful independent British film, behind Four Weddings and a Funeral and Trainspotting.[5]

Moorcroft co-wrote the 2009 sequel, St Trinian's: The Legend of Fritton's Gold with Piers Ashworth.[6] It opened at #2 in the UK just behind Avatar with debut week end box office figures of £1,586,832.[4] As of 10 February 2010, the film has grossed a total of £7,019,714, which is lower than the first installment's £12,280,529. It was the fourth biggest hit of the Christmas season behind Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Sherlock Holmes, and Avatar.

Burke & Hare started shooting on 28 January 2010. The film was directed by American filmmaker John Landis and starred Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the murderous duo. Filming took place around Edinburgh with some scenes also being shot in Stirling and London and Ealing Studios. It was released on 29 October 2010.[7]

On 31 April 2010, Barnaby Thompson, head of Ealing Studios and Fragile Films, announced to the British press that screenwriters Nick Moorcroft and Piers Ashworth are to write a film comedy about Fisherman's Friends.[8] The true story is about a group of Cornish singing fisherman from Port Isaac in Cornwall, England who signed a £1 million record deal with Universal Records and saw their album of sea shanties debut at number nine in the British pop album charts, creating history as the first ever folk album to reach such a position.[9]

The Los Angeles Times reported on 6 July 2010, that Hollywood Studio, Columbia Pictures, has hired writers Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, to write a script for the family adventure story Christian the lion.[10]

The true story about John Rendall and Ace Bourke who bought a lion cub at Harrods department store in 1969, became an internet sensation in 2008 when a heart warming clip appeared on YouTube of Christian the lion recognizing his former owners in the wilds of Africa after they had raised it as their own in their London flat on the Kings Road then arranged for him to be returned to Kenya and reintroduced into the wild by George Adamson. The clip has been viewed more than 14 million times.[11] The adventure story will be produced by Hollywood mega-producer Neal Moritz who is behind the films The Fast and the Furious and I Am Legend.

On 2 July 2014 The Hollywood Reporter announced that Michael Caton-Jones would direct Urban Hymn, a film written by Nick Moorcroft.[12] Principal photography started on 22 September 2014 in London. The film is a coming-of-age drama set against the backdrop of the 2011 English riots and stars Shirley Henderson, Ian Hart, Letitia Wright, Isabella Laughland and English musician and activist, Billy Bragg. The film was selected for the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it received its world premiere in the 'City To City' section to favourable reviews. The film opened in select cinemas in America on 12 May 2017. It was New York Times critics pick of the week. [13]

On 14 May 2016, Variety announced at the Cannes Film Festival that Bafta award-winning and Oscar nominated actress, Imelda Staunton, would star in Finding Your Feet, a film written by Nick Moorcroft & Meg Leonard and directed by Richard Loncraine [14] Screen International reported at the Toronto Film Festival that Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie, Joanna Lumley, David Hayman, John Sessions and Josie Lawrence had joined the project.[15] Filming started on 31 October 2016, in London and Rome. The film was released in Australia on 26 December 2017 then nationwide in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2018. Roadside Attractions picked up U.S distribution rights and released the film in America.[16] The film performed incredibly well in the U.K and Australia and was one of the highest grossing independent British films of the last five years and marked Moorcroft's most successful film since St Trinian's.

On 13 October 2017, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard have been hired to adapt "The Lido" - the highly anticipated debut novel from Libby Page. The book sold to Orion in the U.K. and to Simon & Schuster in the U.S. within 24 hours of submission. The novel has now been sold to more than 24 territories around the world. Catalyst CEO Charlotte Walls will produce the feature-film adaptation. [17]

In a Variety exclusive on 16 March 2018, it was reported that The Corrupted had commenced shooting in London, United Kingdom. The film is directed by Ron Scalpello from an original screenplay written by Nick Moorcroft. It stars Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall, Noel Clarke, Hugh Bonneville and David Hayman and will be distributed in the U.K by Entertainment Film Distributors in 2019. [18]

• St Trinian's
• St Trinian's: The Legend of Fritton's Gold
• Burke & Hare
• Urban Hymn
• Finding Your Feet
• Fisherman's Friends
• The Corrupted
• Blithe Spirit (2020 film)

• Urban Hymn Executive Producer
• Finding Your Feet Producer
• Fisherman's Friends Produced By
• The Corrupted Executive Producer
• Blithe Spirit (2020 film)Produced By

• Nick Moorcroft at IMDb