“Will play the prohibition rum runner…
THR is reporting that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Jurassic World’ star Chris Pratt is set to headline ‘The Real McCoy’ for Universal Pictures.
Written by ‘The Judge’ screenwriter Bill Dubuque, the story centres on sea captain and rumrunner smuggler William Frederick McCoy, whose life is believed to have inspired the phrase “”the real McCoy.”
During the Prohibition in the United States, McCoy and his brother fell on hard times, with their taxi boat service and freight business unable to compete with the new highways and buses. Needing money, the brothers made a decision to go into the bootlegging business. Taking control of the Atlantic Ocean rum-running between the Bahamas and Canada, McCoy soon became the biggest rum-runner in the Eastern Seaboard.
HBO’s excellent ‘Boardwalk Empire’ featured a recurring character inspired by McCoy.
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