Brian Anderson ‘s festive best seller about growing up in Glasgow and snapping the city’s best known gangsters could be turned into a Hollywood movie
A Scots photographer who has snapped some of Britain’s most notorious underworld figures is to have talks about turning his own life story turned into a Hollywood movie.
Brian Anderson’s book “Shooting the Mob” which tells of his life as a crime photographer is already a Christmas bestseller resulting in the offer last week from a movie investor with Scottish connections.
The book features some of the high profile underworld figures that Brian has snapped in more than 25 years and tells the story of how he began life as a young photographer in Glasgow picturing the country’s gangsters and eventually earning their trust and becoming their confidant.
Glaswegian Brian, 56, is set for meetings with an unnamed movie big wig early in the New Year to discuss the project. to turn his book into a possible biopic.
Brian told the Daily Record: “The book is just my whole journey documenting Britain’s underworld in the last three decades or so.
“Within an hour of it going live there was interest from a big Hollywood investor and two top actors who wanted to turn it into a movie.
“I don’t want to say who they are at the moment but I am hoping to meet with them in early January.
“They want to tell my story about growing up in the east end of Glasgow surrounded by gangs and gang warfare.
“I got a phone call from a friend to say that they had read the book, had loved it and wanted to meet me.”
Brian who is originally from Blackhill in Glasgow’s tough east end began taking photographs of criminals in the late 1990’s for newspapers when he was around 25.
The first people he ever photographed were Thomas TC Campbell and Joe Steele who were both serving life sentences for the murders of six members of the Doyle family in Glasgow 1984 as part of the city’s bloody and violence ice cream wars.
At the time they were campaigning for their convictions to be overturned, claiming they were the victims of a miscarriage of justice.
In 2004 both men were eventually cleared of the murder charges after spending more than 20 years behind bars.
Since then Brian has photographed a wide variety of underworld figures including Glasgow crime bosses like Arthur Thompson snr and Tam McGraw, and Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.
He has also taken photographs of members of the feuding Lyons and Daniel Glasgow crime families., former Kray Twins driver Billy Frost, and 1960s’s London underworld figures Freddie Foreman and Mad Frankie Fraser.
Brian is also one of the few people to have managed to take photographs of the funerals of London gangsters and also Northern Ireland paramilitaries.
He added:”Over the years I became the go to guy in Glasgow to take photographs of underworld figures. “Then eventually I began photographing the whole of the British underworld and have now put these photographs in one book and telling my own story.”
Brian sees “Shooting the Mob” and other photographs he has taken over the years as creating a historical record of criminal figures past and present that future generations can refer to as a source of research and academic study
One of the earliest people he began photographing was underworld figure turned reformed criminal and author Paul Ferris after he got out of prison around 2001 on firearms offences.
Ferris first came to public attention in 1992 when he stood trial for the murder of Arthur Thompson jnr, son of then Glasgow crime boss Arthur Thompson snr.
Ferris was cleared unanimously by a jury at the High Court in Glasgow in what was Scotland’s longest running criminal trial.
Since then Ferris has brought out a book about his life of crime which was turned into a movie “The Wee Man” starring Line of Duty star Martin Compston with a follow up in the pipleline.
Brian’s photographs have appeared in various other books and crime documentaries in recent years including series by Amazon, Netflix and Sky.
Brian added:”When I was growing up in the east end of Glasgow, everything was crime related. It has been a bit of a journey.
“For me it was about picking up a camera instead of a weapon, which was what a lot of my friends did and ended up in jail or murdered.”
Brian recalls a confrontation with the late Glasgow crime boss Jamie Daniel around 2010 when he tried to take his photograph outside his home in Jordanhill, Glasgow.
Daniel chased him in his car bumper to bumper for about two miles before Brian managed to escape.
One of Brian’s earliest brushes with the underworld was when he met Glasgow crime boss Arthur Thompson snr in the 1980’s outside his home in Provanmill Road in Glasgow, then nicknamed the Ponderosa.
At the time Brian’s uncle Andrew was a gardener and Arthur had asked him to cut the grass for £20 outside his son Arthur Thompson’ jnr’s home which was nearby.
Brian recalled:”One thing I remember about that meeting was how black his eyes were.”
Thompson snr died from a heart attack in 1993 – at the age of 63 – only a few months after Ferris had been cleared of his son’s murder.
Given the success of “Shooting the Mob” Brian is already planning a follow up telling more about his life growing up in the east end and entry into crime photography.
His work includes collaborations with Ricky Gervais on the story of alternative music show XFM, as well as films featuring Iggy Pop and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream
Brian has also just finished a documentary with—and about—Scots author Irvine Welsh.
In 2026 he plans a book on music legend Peter Doherty first started in 2014.
