Daily Mail - 13 February 2008

Dennis the menace's film rant

The Diary

Nearly four decades after Felix Dennis was jailed for nine months after the notorious Oz magazine obscenity trial, the events continue to send shivers down the multi-millionaire's spine.

Although the 60-year- old publisher's conviction was quashed on appeal, he remains marked by the events of 1971.

Now worth more than £750 million and listed as the 95th richest man in Britain, he has taken exception to the forthcoming film Hippie Hippie Shake - starring Sienna Miller as a free-loving flower child - that centres around the trial.

Dennis was a drop-out living on the dole when he co-founded the satirical magazine Oz with fellow defendants Richard Neville and James Anderson.

But he was taken aback when he was given the script of producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's film, which is based on Neville's autobiography and due out later this year.

The movie, according to Dennis, bears no relation to what actually happened. So much so that the tycoon refused to sign a legal waiver with the film's makers, Working Title and Universal Studios, that would have barred him from suing if he did not like it.

Says Dennis, who has homes in Warwickshire, New York and Mustique: "It is not about history. It is not about what happened. It is Hollywood history, which means it is a love story in which everything is just switched around for the sake of making a movie."

In the film, the trial judge - who famously questioned Dennis's intelligence - is played by Sir Derek Jacobi while Felix is portrayed by Irish actor Chris O'Dowd, best known for the TV comedy The IT Crowd.

Irish heart-throb actor Cillian Murphy plays Neville and his girlfriend's part is taken by Miss Miller, who will appear naked at least once.

Dennis, whose publishing empire stretches from lifestyle magazines to computer weeklies, explains in a filmed interview for the new website Access Interviews.com: "When I read the script, I thought this has nothing to do with reality. It is about whether Tim Bevan can get more money by getting more bums on seats.

He adds: "You have massive conglomerates making a film about a bunch of hippies in Britain. Well, I bet that is going to be really sensitive and get down to the issues - like hell!

"What it will get down to is whether Sienna agrees to let her t**s be seen front-on or not."

However, he jokes: "What can be wrong with a movie where Sienna Miller is going to take all her clothes off?

"I wish Sienna a tremendous career and lots of success. I don't want to stop people having a good time and making money."