Gangster film favourite Mark Harris, star of The Hatton Garden Job, Bonded By Blood 2 and GBH is set to headline Hereford Films’ latest gangland epic, the definitive take on the Rettendon murders, which will be released next year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the brutal gangland slayings.

Harris, currently prepping to play Roy Shaw in Hereford’s underworld biopic Pretty Boy, will take the role of Steve ‘Nipper’ Ellis, the only survivor of the Essex bloodbath.

The film is based on the book Essex Boy – Last Man Standing by Ellis and Bernard O’Mahoney.

Scripting duties fall to Simon Cluett, who has previously written Age of Kill, We Still Steal The Old Way and Bonded By Blood 2 for Hereford Films. No director or other cast announcements as yet.

Essex Boy – Last Man Standing will be the 10th film based on the murders, which spawned the popular Rise of the Footsoldier and Bonded By Blood franchises. Mickey Steele and Jack Whomes are currently serving life sentences for the killings, but both maintain their innocence.

Pre production is expected to start this Spring.