Paddy Considine is set to play a gypsy bare knuckle fighter in a new film from British director Shane Meadows.

Based on a true story, the film follows a bare knuckle fighter who is also king of the gypsies.

Paddy Considine revealed that he's got a lot of work to do in the gym for the role, and although it's going to be fun he's not really looking forward to it.

At the Empire Awards he said a few words about the story but didn't give away much.

"We're writing King Of The Gypsies...We go away at the end of the week to write the first draft. I'm going to be the lead in it and I've got to spend the rest of the year spending five or six days a week training at the gym...

It's based on a real guy but we'll kind of embellish it, he's a great character to start with but it's hard to take a life story without adding elements to it and we're all for making it brilliant."

Sounds interesting, and with Considine playing the lead you know you're in for a great performance.

He also revealed that after winning a Bafta for his short film Dog Altogether, he's setting up to direct his own film later this year called Tyrannosaur. No it's not the latest Jurassic Park, this is something much more dramatic and hard hitting.

So far Considine says that he has only managed to cast Olivia Coleman from Dog Altogether, Peep Show and Hot Fuzz (Filmstalker review). However it's very early days.

From Empire he talks about the story:

"Well, it's about a woman leaving an abusive relationship. But it's not your run-of-the-mill, kitchen-sink drama, there are bits and pieces in there that hopefully make it a little bit different. Hopefully, we start shooting it at the end of the year."

I came late to Considine's career finding out about him through Backwoods (Filmstalker review), a powerful and particularly well acted film, so I'm keen to see what he can do behind the camer too, and with a Bafta for his short under his belt I think that we're going to see something pretty powerful from him.