Gangster film descends into farce as producer Al Rama claims Mark ‘Chopper’ Read could not attend launch event due to terminal cancer

Film-maker Al Rama has made an embarrassing public back-track over the non-appearance of criminal turned celebrity Mark ‘Chopper’ Read at a press gathering to unveil Read as the star of his new film.

Rama told reporters that Read – who is seriously ill – had collapsed, so could not attend the event, which was supposedly to reveal Read’s part in Melbourne underworld movie The Hurtin Kind Part One: The Albanian.

“I think his terminal cancer’s playing up on him,” he said in a video interview on The Age’s website. “He just sort of fainted. He got dizzy and collapsed as he was walking out to the car.”