Marco Pierre White, the outspoken chef and host of the TV show Hell’s Kitchen, from 2004 to 2009, has revealed that Russell Crowe will write, direct and star in a new film about Pierre White’s life.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Pierre White said: “I have just signed the deal. Russell has written the script, Russell’s company is producing it, Russell is directing it and Russell is playing the third or fourth Marco.

“When they do a movie on your life, you don’t just have one Marco – I am nearly 60. If there was anyone in Hollywood to play me, it would have to be Russell.”

The film has reportedly been in the planning stage for five years, with Ridley Scott earlier attached to direct either Michael Fassbender or Tom Hardy in the leading role.

Pierre White explained that, as his acquaintance with Crowe grew, “I thought to myself, ‘Actually, I think Russell Crowe should be playing me, not Michael Fassbender’.”

Pierre White became famous in the 1990s when was made head chef at the London restaurant Harveys at the age of 24, in charge of a team including Gordon Ramsay, with whom he later fell out.

In 1995, aged 33, he became the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Alongside his interests in the film industry, Crowe is an investor in an organic beef company that sells to restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne.

In 2015, the actor vented his anger at shoddy practices and low standards in the hospitality industry, saying workers should be “held to the highest level of due diligence and responsibility”.

In 2015, Bradley Cooper starred as a volatile London-based chef said to be partly inspired by Pierre White in the flop drama Burnt.