A MAN who used to sell popcorn at a Bristol cinema has landed a $10-million deal to put his own movie script on the screen.

Stuart Gallop spent almost ten years writing a science fiction thriller in his spare time.

The 31-year-old wrote the script while holding down a day job as a business analyst and project manager for Bristol-based student accommodation company Unite.

But being made redundant earlier this year gave him the spur he needed to get it from his spare room to the silver screen. After touting his script around the Cannes film festival in May it was picked up by a producer from Los Angeles.

Now Mr Gallop has secured backing to the tune of $10 million – about £6.3 million – to turn it into a blockbuster.

And he would love nothing more than to show it at a cinema in the city where he first got a taste of the movie industry.

After moving to Bristol from Swindon 13 years ago Mr Gallop, from Cleeve in North Somerset, started working at what was then the Warner Village cinema, at Cribbs Causeway.

There he sold popcorn and swept out the cinemas in-between screenings as an usher, watching movies on his days off and before shifts.

He said: “I worked there because it was the nearest I could get at the time to being involved with films.

“Even just selling people popcorn and seeing what film people were going to see was exciting because I wanted to see their reaction.

“I was worlds away from thinking it was something I could do myself. It was always something I wanted to do but I never thought I would be doing it.

“When I was there was when things like Saving Private Ryan were out. I remember some of the old veterans who went in to watch it coming out very upset and moved.

“It really stuck in my mind and I thought, ‘that is the sort of impact that a film can have on people’.

“Films really, really touch people, and I knew that was the sort of thing I wanted to do some day.

“The earliest memory I have of a film is the scene from Jaws where the shark comes out of the water and eats Quint at the end.

“I was living with my dad and me and my brother came downstairs and came in just at that moment.

“We went mental, screaming and crying, and we didn’t know what had happened.

“That had a big impact on me and I have loved films ever since.”

Despite starting a course in film theory, his dream was left on the cutting room floor as other things in life took over.

“I worked at Unite for ten years but my secret passion was always film,” said Mr Gallop.

While working in the day in his spare time he started writing a movie – a sci-fi thriller called In War They Come, about aliens who use humanity’s wars to abduct soldiers and conduct experiments on them.

Mr Gallop said: “I finished the first draft in 2009 after eight years of writing it. That script has gone through three girlfriends and several house moves – it has always been there.”

In November that year he went to the American Film Market in Los Angeles to try to get the film picked up by a studio or producer. After ten nervous days of networking and meetings an Emmy award-winning director showed interest, and the pair spent a few months trying to find backers.

But the project fell through and Mr Gallop was back to square one.

Being made redundant in April after ten years at Unite gave him the push he needed to get his film off the ground.

He took the script to the Cannes festival in May and met LA-based actor and producer Beau Nelson and producer Kayo Anderson, who jumped at the chance to get involved. The pair have since got the backing of a consortium of US investors, who have put $10 million into the project.

With contracts signed, the new team behind the film is talking to directors and is ready to put together a cast and crew.

Mr Gallop hopes to start filming early next year, possibly in Puerto Rico.

While the film is unlikely to feature the likes of Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt, Mr Gallop will just be happy to get it made.

And he would be delighted to have someone else serve the popcorn while his film is shown on the big screen.

Mr Gallop said: “I would love to come back and show it at the Watershed or Cinema de Lux. It would be a dream come true.”