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Michael Lesslie (born November 1983[1][2]) is a British playwright, screenwriter and producer.
He studied English Language and Literature at Exeter College, Oxford,[3] where he received a double first.[2][4] His debut short film, Heavy Metal Drummer, was nominated for a BAFTA Award.[4]
In 2005 he wrote a stage adaptation of The Constant Prince, which performed at the Oxford Playhouse and London Arcola.[5] In 2007 he adapted the film Swimming With Sharks for the stage. It opened at the Vaudeville Theatre, making Michael then the youngest person ever to have opened a new play straight into the West End. His play Prince of Denmark, a Hamlet prequel, was premiered in 2011 by the National Youth Theatre at the Royal National Theatre in London. It was subsequently performed at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.[6]
In 2015 Lesslie adapted Macbeth, rewriting a script by Todd Louiso and Jacob Koskoff. The film was directed by Justin Kurzel and starred Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. It played in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival.[7] He wrote the original script for the Assassin's Creed film adaptation in 2016, which was then rewritten by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage and others.[7]
In 2018 he served as lead writer and executive producer on John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl. The TV series starred Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgard and Charles Dance, and was directed by Park Chan-Wook.[7]
In 2023 he co-wrote the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, directed by Francis Lawrence.[7]
Lesslie founded Storyteller Productions with producer PJ van Sandwijk. The company’s films for which he has acted as producer or executive producer include the features Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard and Locked Down, directed by Doug Liman.[8]
He has also acted as executive producer on the documentary films The Rescue, Pigeon Tunnel [9]and Citizen K.[7] Michael won an Emmy for his role as executive producer on The Rescue.[10]
On May 21, 2024, Deadline Hollywood reported that Lesslie had been set by Marvel Studios to write the upcoming reboot of the X-Men film franchise, now set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[11]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Heavy Metal Drummer | Writer; short film |
| 2007 | Airlock, or How to Say Goodbye in Space | Writer; short film |
| 2012 | Skirt | Writer; short film |
| 2015 | Eleanor | Writer; short film |
| Macbeth | Writer; feature film debut | |
| 2016 | Assassin's Creed | Writer |
| 2018 | The Little Drummer Girl | Writer & executive producer |
| American Dharma | Executive producer | |
| 2019 | Citizen K | Executive producer |
| 2021 | Locked Down | Producer |
| Thirteen Lives | Executive producer | |
| 2022 | The Rescue | Executive producer |
| 2023 | The Pigeon Tunnel | Executive producer |
| The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes | Writer | |
| 2025 | Now You See Me 3 | Writer |
| TBA | Hamlet | Writer & producer |
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