About

Known credits:
16
Birthday:
1983-11-01
Place of birth:
UK
Website:
N/A

Michael Lesslie

Overview

Michael Lesslie (born November 1983) is a British playwright, screenwriter, and producer.

He studied English Language and Literature at Exeter College, Oxford, where he received a double first. His debut short film, Heavy Metal Drummer, was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

In 2005, he wrote a stage adaptation of The Constant Prince, which performed at the Oxford Playhouse and London Arcola. 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.

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 the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He wrote the original script for the Assassin's Creed film adaptation in 2016, which was then rewritten by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and others.

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.

In 2023, he co-wrote the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, directed by Francis Lawrence.

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.

He has also acted as an executive producer on the documentary films The Rescue, Pigeon Tunnel, and Citizen K. Michael won an Emmy for his role as executive producer on The Rescue.

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.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Lesslie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Writing

2025 Now You See Me 3 Writing Writer N/A
N/A
2023 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Writing Screenplay 68
Fair
2016 Assassin's Creed Writing Screenplay 54
Average
2015 Macbeth Writing Screenplay 63
Fair
2015 Eleanor Writing Writer N/A
N/A
2007 Airlock, or How to Say Goodbye in Space Writing Writer N/A
N/A
2005 Heavy Metal Drummer Writing Writer 59
Average
Hamlet Writing Writer N/A
N/A
Untitled X-Men Movie Writing Writer N/A
N/A

Production

2023 The Pigeon Tunnel Production Executive Producer 59
Average
2022 Thirteen Lives Production Executive Producer 73
Good
2021 The Rescue Production Executive Producer 64
Fair
2021 Locked Down Production Producer 56
Average
2019 Citizen K Production Executive Producer 59
Average
Hamlet Production Producer N/A
N/A
Dope Girls Production Executive Producer N/A
N/A