The death of cult movie-maker Russ Meyer, one of the most colourful figures in the cinema world, has set off a trail of tantalising rumours he has a secret heir to his fortune.

Meyer, who died last Saturday at the age of 82, earned the nickname "King of the Nudies" for his pioneering skin-flicks which featured a succession of pneumatic starlets. Meyer's studio said he left no survivors, but now rumours have begun to spread that the director - whose films included Supervixens, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - had a son. Renowned US biographer Jimmy McDonough is working on a book which is thought to show the existence of a Meyer heir, and a UK TV production company is now planning to make a documentary about the previously unknown offspring, thought to be in his late 40s.

Producer Jon-Barrie Waddell said the possibility of a son was mentioned by a number of Meyer associates as he put together a film which is being shown by Channel Five next month, provisionally titled Russ Meyer: King of Sexploitation. "I think there's a lot of truth behind it, but we need to do a lot more digging to verify it," said Mr Waddell.

McDonough was behind an exhaustively researched 900-page biography of the rock star Neil Young, but he has given nothing away about the content of his new book. Three-times married Meyer, who surrounded himself with a succession of the busty actresses and strippers who appeared in his films, had been a war photographer and worked on Playboy magazine before beginning his movie career with the romp The Immoral Mr Teas. He went on to make a further 25 films which were titillating, but never graphic.

At one stage he was to direct a movie with the Sex Pistols but the project was abandoned. The film later became The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, directed by Julien Temple.