Porn baron movie title row settled

A high-profile movie about porn baron Paul Raymond starring Steve Coogan will have to change its title after a legal tussle with the late tycoon's family.

The Channel 4-backed film was to be called The King Of Soho, but faced a challenge from Raymond's son who had already registered the name for a rival production.

Now backers of the Coogan movie - directed by acclaimed film-maker Michael Winterbottom - have agreed they will find a new name for the biopic about the businessman.

Raymond's son Howard called in lawyers claiming he had the rights to the name - also the title of a biography he wrote about his father. A film based on his book is to star Avengers Assemble's Tom Hiddleston.

Howard Raymond said: "I am delighted that Michael Winterbottom has agreed to change the name of his film as it was causing a huge amount of confusion in the media that two films were being made about my father under the same title.

"It is unfortunate that it proved necessary to have to resort to legal proceedings to bring this issue to a conclusion but I am pleased that they have had a change of heart and backed down.

"I have never wanted or sought to prevent this rival production from making a film about my late father's life."

Raymond died in 2008 after amassing a fortune through his properties around the Soho area of London and his string of adult publications. He famously owned the Raymond Revue bar strip club which featured in the Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour.

The Coogan movie also stars Anna Friel, Imogen Poots and Tamsin Egerton and is based on Paul Willetts' biography Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond. It was originally given the working title - Paul Raymond's Wonderful World Of Erotica.