Dapper Laughs star to make film debut

Daniel O’Reilly, the man behind controversial comedy figure Dapper Laughs, is to star in a feature film.

Fanged Up, a comedy-horror described as “The Inbetweeners meets Lesbian Vampire Killers”, will feature Dapper Laughs creator Daniel O’Reilly as a prisoner in an overseas jail which is attacked by female vampires.

According to the comedy website Chortle, the film will be shot in London in early 2016, with a view to a release later in the year. Nick Nevern, O’Reilly’s frequent Vine collaborator, will direct and co-star.

Although O’Reilly will not be appearing as Dapper Laughs, his character is said to be in a similar vein to his divisive alter ego, with, according to producer Jonathan Sothcott, ” the same type of humour that we all hopefully love about Dapper”.

“We had him in with a load of actors to do a table read of the script and he was fantastic,” Sothcott told Chortle. “He’s got bags and bags of charisma which is half the battle and I think he’ll be really good.”

The film, added Sothcott, “pays homage to all those 1980s B-movies like Fright Night and The Lost Boys, all those silly vampire movies. It’s a little bit like Lesbian Vampire Killers but better, obviously.”

In 2014, homelessness charity Shelter publicly stated that they would refuse proceeds from Dapper Laughs’s single A Proper Naughty Christmas, after a website pointed out lyrics to one of its tracks were offensive to the homeless.

In the same year, backlash against his ITV show On The Pull grew, culminating in an online petition for the cancellation of the show after the comic claimed a female audience member at a live show was “gagging for a rape.”

The petition gained 68,210 signatures, and in November ITV announced that they would not renew the series for a second series, with Dapper Laughs’ tour also being pulled.

Shortly afterwards, O’Reilly announced on Newsnight that he would not continue with the “character”. O’Reilly resurrected Dapper Laughs in December.

Despite previous criticism of O’Reilly, Sothcott defended the decision to cast him in Fanged Up, saying: “I think he had a bad year. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time and I know he’s a really good guy. I’ve seen in the past how things can get misinterpreted in the press. He’s got a heart of gold. He won’t bring baggage, but audiences we haven’t found yet.”