The first film Rise of the Footsoldier was released on 7 September 2007 and grossed 220,868. It was the third production from BAFTA Award-nominated director Julian Gilbey and is based on the autobiography of Leach who had risen from a football hooligan to becoming a bouncer, hired muscle and later part of the Essex firm of the 1990s and his involvement with Pat Tate and Tony Tucker.[1][2][3] The sequel Rise of the Footsoldier Part II: Reign of the General released in 2015 followed Leach in the aftermath of the murders, whilst Rise of the Footsoldier: The Pat Tate Story (2017), Rise of the Footsoldier: Marbella (2019) and Rise of the Footsoldier Origins (2021) are prequels to the original and do not feature Carlton Leach, but are loosely based upon the lives of Tucker and Tate. Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance was released in 2023.
Rise of the Footsoldier follows the rise of Carlton Leach from a football hooligan to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through Essex in the late eighties and early nineties. It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, to bouncer, his involvement in the criminal aspects of the early 'rave' scene and subsequently becoming a violent criminal. The film took a worldwide box office of $355,345.[4]
Notorious gangster, Pat Tate, rises through the ranks of Essex's criminal underworld, and battles rival drug dealers, vicious prison inmates and gets double-crossed by drug lord Frank Harris. It took $17,181 at the box office.[7]
582128177f