The Full Monty is set to reveal itself to a new generation after Disney+ has announced a series will be produced for the streaming site 25 years after the BAFTA-winning movie debuted.
Yesterday, Monday March 28, it was confirmed filming would start on a series based on the 1997 under-dog movie The Full Monty.
What is the Full Monty?
Set in Sheffield, England during the 1990s, The Full Monty tells the story of six unemployed men, four of them former steel workers, who decide to form a male striptease act (à la the Chippendale dancers) in order to make some money and for the main character, Gaz (played by Robert Carlyle), to be able to see his son. Although the film was marketed as a comedy and had many comedic moments it also touched on unemployment, fathers’ rights, depression, impotence, homosexuality, body image, working class culture and suicide.
The film only had a $3.5 million (£2.67 million) budget, but grossed $258 million (£19.7 million) worldwide along with winning the BAFTA Award and European Film Award for Best Film, and was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, winning the last.
It became such a success The Full Monty was adapted into a musical in 2000 and a play in 2013.
What We Know About The Disney+ Series
According to Disney+ the series will pick up 25 years later as the ‘original band of brothers as they navigate the post-industrial city of Sheffield and society’s crumbling healthcare, education and employment sectors’.
The series will explore the brighter, sillier and more humane way forward where communal effort can still triumph over adversity.
For fans of the original, fear not, the lead cast will be reprising their roles including; Robert Carlyle as Gaz, Mark Addy as Dave, Lesley Sharp as Jean, Hugo Speer as Guy, Paul Barber as Horse, Steve Huison as Lomper, Wim Snape as Nathan and Tom Wilkinson as Gerald in this heartfelt and fiercely funny world of working-class heroes in the North of England. The series will also introduce a whole new cast of children and grandchildren of the returning characters.
Also returning for the show, which is being commissioned by Disney+ and FX, will be the original film’s Academy Award-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and producer Uberto Pasolini.
Beaufoy said: ‘We’re chuffed to bits to get all the Monty Men back together again – now with a chaotic entourage of children, grandchildren, pets and assorted hangers-on – to see what life in Sheffield is like twenty-five years on.’
When Will It Air?
There is no word to when the series will air yet, but for fans who haven’t seen the original film will be able to experience the OG movie as it’s now available to stream on Disney+.