Sealand News

The man responsible for the Sealand film has been named.

Mike Newell will helm the Sealand movie, the true story of Roy Bates, a pirate radio operator who moved into an abandoned British anti-aircraft platform with his family and declared it his own sovereign nation.

Newell is an acclaimed British director, who directed Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Donnie Brasco (1997), Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and numerous other popular films. His most recent movies include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Love in the Time of Cholera (2007).

The Sealand film will be shot from a script by Sean Sorensen. It’s expected to hit movie screens in June 2008.

Sealandnews.com has learned that former Harry Potter Star Emma Watson is in the running to portrait Princess Joan of Sealand in the forthcoming “Sealand” movie.

The 17 years old Watson who played Hermione Granger in the films, is alledgedly interested to take the role of the young model who fell in love with “Paddy” Roy Bates (Prince Roy of Sealand) and married him six months later to become princess of the smallest country in the world. More…

A big-budget movie about the early days of Sealand is now in-developement at Warner Brothers for summer 2008 release.

Already the internet is buzzing with rumors as to who will play legendary Prince Roy of Sealand. Reliable sources report that Ralph Fiennes is very much interested in the role. More…

Sorensen’s modern-day ‘Braveheart’ finds a home

Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up scribe Sean Sorensen’s pitch “Sealand” for WB-based Industry Entertainment to produce.

A-list actors Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe are already being touted as potential stars to play the parts of Roy, and his son Michael, who is the current Prince of Sealand, the smallest country in the world. Film-makers will have no shortage of action to choose from as the Bates family have dealt with everything from a hostage ordeal and legal battles with the British Government to allegations of collusion with Colombian drug barons, the Russian Mafia and internet terrorists .

The script will be penned by American writer Sean Sorensen, who optioned the life rights to the Bates family with money he won on a television gameshow.

Read more here: Variety