Michael Lesslie

Michael Lesslie is a screenwriter, playwright and producer whose projects have won international awards ranging from BAFTAs to Emmys. His film of Macbeth premiered in Official Competition in Cannes to five-star reviews. His television debut The Little Drummer Girl, on which he served as showrunner for the legendary director Park Chan-Wook, also launched to five-star reviews, along with top ratings for the BBC. His most recent film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes stayed at number one in the global box office for multiple weeks and successfully relaunched the franchise. His plays have been performed at the Royal National Theatre and beyond, and in 2007 he became the youngest person ever to open a new play straight into the West End.

As a producer Michael’s currently in post-production on a film of Hamlet starring Riz Ahmed and a major BBC TV series Dope Girls. Recent writing projects include Now You See Me 3 for Lionsgate and he is currently writing the X Men movie for Marvel, bringing the iconic mutants into the MCU for the first time. Other projects in development include large-scale film, TV and theatre projects with such acclaimed practitioners as Bill Nighy, Johan Renck and Margaret Atwood.

Michael co-founded Storyteller Productions with PJ van Sandwijk in order to bring bold, global new stories to life. The company’s work includes the Emmy-winning The Rescue, Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives and Michael Mann’s upcoming Ferrari. Storyteller is die to shoot two feature films this year, with many more projects lined up for 2025 – including the first major film to be shot in space, to be directed by Doug Liman and to star Tom Cruise.