London Fields (film)

London Fields is an upcoming thriller film directed by Mathew Cullen and written by Roberta Hanley. It is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Martin Amis. The film stars Billy Bob Thornton as Samson Young, a terminally ill writer who has suffered from writer's block for 20 years. The cast also includes Amber Heard, Jim Sturgess, Theo James, Johnny Depp, Cara Delevingne and Jaimie Alexander.

It was selected to be screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, but it was later pulled from the festival roster after director Mathew Cullen sued the film's producers, accusing them of fraud and using his name to promote a cut of the film he does not support.

David Cronenberg was attached in 2001 to do a film adaptation of the book, and Amis wrote a draft of the script. However, Cronenberg left the film for A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. Other directors attached include David Mackenzie and Michael Winterbottom. The film entered production with Mathew Cullen in September 2013 in London, England.

Announcing the start of filming, The Guardian's Ben Child observed, "It has languished in Hollywood purgatory for well over a decade while directors of the calibre of David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom and Shekhar Kapur have come and gone. But Martin Amis's most celebrated novel, London Fields, is finally due to begin shooting today in the British capital with a high-profile cast that includes Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Jim Sturgess". Child added, "Amis adaptations have something of a chequered history, with both Dead Babies and The Rachel Papers picking up critical brickbats upon release, and a proposed adaptation of 1985's Money starring Gary Oldman failing to materialise. With the novelist having been working on the London Fields screenplay since at least 2008, the fact that production has finally begun will presumably come as something of a relief for the 64-year-old writer. That it is being overseen by the director of Katy Perry's California Gurls video is something of an unusual last-minute twist in the tale".