Buccaneer, smuggler, gambler, street fighter, gold prospector and one of the most charismatic movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Errol Flynn’s life, before he found fame as an actor, was not for the faint-hearted.
And now the life of Flynn has been brought to the screen with the movie biopic, In Like Flynn.
Thomas Cocquerel takes the title role in Australian director Russell Mulcahy's early-years biopic of the famed swashbuckler which is based on Flynn's early autobiography Beam Ends.
A colourful celebration of Flynn’s early years, is the story of a man whose real-life adventures eclipsed those that he portrayed on-screen.
In 1930, in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, while serving as a guide for a Hollywood producer, a young Flynn discovers a trail that will lead to a fortune in gold.
Back on the streets of Depression-era Sydney, Flynn rounds up a ragtag crew including Rex, a Canadian ex-bootlegger, Dook, an English gentleman handy with a pistol and Charlie, a grizzled old salt.
After stealing the Sirocco, a yacht belonging to Chinese opium smugglers, Flynn and crew set sail.
They quickly learn just how treacherous a voyage up the Australian east coast can be, running afoul of drunken cowboys, corrupt cops and local thugs before being intercepted by Chinese pirates, who are hell bent on retrieving the Sirocco and the several pounds of opium stashed in its hold.
As the motley crew make a final dash for New Guinea, Flynn is forced to learn what it means to be a real captain, and a master of his own destiny.
The film also stars Corey Large, William Mosely, Isabel Lucas, David Wenham, Dan Fogler and Clive Standen.
In Like Flynn will release through Umbrella Entertainment in cinemas across Australia from October 11.