Oasis bad boy Liam Gallagher is “mad for” a part as a villain in a new gangster film, it emerged today.

The makers of the movie will hold talks with the rocker, who has never acted before, in Edinburgh tomorrow before the band’s sell-out gig in the Scottish capital.



Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle has reportedly already been cast as the lead role in the film about the life of convicted Glasgow gun-runner Paul Ferris.

But if Liam, 32, wants the part, he may have to put aside his staunch allegiance to Manchester City football club and sport a shirt of their bitter rivals, Manchester United.

The Oasis frontman, from Burnage, would play real life Mr Big and United fan Paul Massey, from Salford.

The gangland boss and long-standing ally of Ferris is serving a 14-year sentence at Frankland Prison, Co Durham, for a stabbing in 1999.

Liam and his brother Noel, who also support Celtic, will watch the Hoops play Hearts at Tynecastle in Edinburgh tomorrow before their concert.

The brothers will meet up between the two events with Ferris and members of the production team of the £14 million film, which has the working title of The Apprentice.

The film’s executive producer Paul Kerr, who is the brother of Simple Minds frontman Jim, today declined to comment at his home.

But Ferris’ biographer, Reg McKay, told the Scottish Press Association: “I’ve just spoken to Ferris and yes, Liam Gallagher has expressed interest in this part. Dare I say it, he’s mad for it.

“Paul Massey is a big fan of Liam and thinks he will be brilliant in the part as he has the menace and the presence and, even better, he’s also a Manchester boy.

“Thing is, Massey is a mad United fan so it’s going to test Liam’s acting abilities to the utmost to see if he can bear wearing the jersey of his beloved City’s rivals.”

Earlier this week, Ferris and representatives from Box Office Films were at the Cannes Film Festival looking for funding for the film.

Massey, 44, built a fortune from protection rackets and his assets included hundreds of properties across Europe.

He lived in a semi-detached house in Salford and was chauffeured around council estates in his Rolls Royce sipping champagne in the back seat.

Ferris started out with notorious Glasgow gangland godfather Arthur Thompson Snr in the late 1970s, but they parted company in the 1980s.

In 1998 he was jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey in London for trafficking guns and explosives.

Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell’s London-based firm BMG is one of the backers of the new film.

BMG is reported to have paid Ferris a six-figure sum to bring his book, The Ferris Conspiracy, to the big screen.