Cillian Murphy is to join forces with Netflix on a new project, Steve, a film which will see him star and produce.
It has been reported that production for this film will begin in the Spring, and will be produced by Murphy, and his production partner Alan Moloney’s company Big Things Films.
Steve will be directed by Tim Mielants, who also worked with Murphy on the Netflix hit series, Peaky Blinders.
According to Deadline, Steve “is a reimagining of Porter’s Shy and traces a pivotal 24 hours in the life of its eponymous character, a headteacher (Murphy) of a last-chance reform school who struggles to keep his students in line, while also grappling with his spiraling mental health”.
Tim Mielants also joins forces with Cillian Murphy on the film Small Things Like These, an adaption of Claire Keegan’s bestseller novel.
This film will also open the Berlin Film Festival, which begins next week. See Nova’s report on that for more.
“an emotional effect”
Steve is an adaption of author Max Porter’s bestseller novel Shy. Porter had previously worked with Murphy on the stage adaption of Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers and the short film All of This Unreal Time.
Porter who also wrote the script for Steve, also came in for particular praise by Murphy, in a recent interview.
“I just adore Max’s writing and the thing his writing does for me, which Claire Keegan’s writing does as well – and it’s something I’ve always chased down in writing – is something that has an actual visceral effect on you, an emotional effect,” Murphy told Deadline.
He continued, “I remember reading Foster, Claire’s short story, I remember actually crying reading the book and having to put my hood up on the train to try to hide, I was so embarrassed”.
“And then Shy was also that book. Max gave me that book in a proof edition before he finished it, and again it just broke my heart. They’re the sorts of things I love as a reader and as a performer, so I really wanted to do something with him”.
Cillian Murphy has already received nominations for BAFTA and Academy Awards for his performance in the Christopher Nolan directed Oppenheimer.
The BAFTA Awards take place in London on February 18, with the Oscars taking place the following month on March 10.
Elsewhere, the actor’s son Aran has also been cast in the Taika Waititi film ‘Klara and the Sun’. More on that here.
