12 CinÉireann / May 2018
STORYBOARD
Production News
Principal photography is underway in counties Galway and Clare on new Irish film Calm With Horses, which is directed by Ripper Street director Nick Rowland.
Set in rural Ireland, the film follows ex-boxer Arm who has become the feared enforcer of the drug-dealing Devers family while trying to be a good father to his autistic five-year-old son. Torn between these two families, Arm is asked to kill for the first time, and his attempt to do the right thing endangers everyone he holds dear.
Irish stars Barry Keoghan (The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) and Niamh Algar (The Drummer And The Keeper) will feature alongside English singer-songwriter, musician, and actor Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth).
DMC Film, the production company founded by Michael Fassbender and Conor McCaughan, and producer Daniel Emmerson have developed the project with Film4 as Nick Rowland’s feature directorial debut following Slap his BAFTA and BIFA-nominated short film. Rowland’s other short film successes include a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination for Out of Sight, and Royal Television Society Student wins for Dancing in the Ashes and Group B, which was also nominated for a student Oscar®. Most recently he has directed episodes of the BBC primetime drama Hard Sunand Amazon’s Ripper Street.
Calm With Horses is based on a novella from the acclaimed collection of short stories Young Skins by Irish writer Colin Barrett from Mayo. The collection won The Guardian’s first book award and the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize. Writer Joe Murtagh has adapted the screenplay and has collaborated with Rowland since they studied together at the NFTS. Rowland, Murtagh and Emmerson have all featured in Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow showcase.
The casting director is Shaheen Baig whose work has earned her an international reputation for discovering talent for films including recent successes Lady Macbeth, God’s Own Country and The Falling. The production team includes IFTA-nominated director of photography Piers McGrail whose credits include Glassland starring Will Poulter and Toni Colette, Never Grow Old starring Emile Hirsch and John Cusack, David Freyne’s The Cured starring Ellen Page. The production designer is Damien Creagh who has most recently worked on Idris Elba’s Yardie, which premiered at Sundance, and Peter Middleton and James Spinney’s BAFTA-nominated and BIFA-winning Notes on Blindness. The editor is Nicolas Chaudeurge who has just completed Kim Nguyen’s The Hummingbird Project starring Jesse Eisenberg and worked with Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland on the Oscar® winning Still Alice and Andrea Arnold on her Cannes Jury Prize-winning Fish Tank. The costume designer is Sharon Long who has worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, Jack the Giant Slayer and The Bank Job. The film’s soundtrack will be composed by David Holmes whose work includes Steven Soderbergh’s Oceans trilogy, ’71 and Hunger.
Daniel Emmerson will produce for DMC Films, with DMC founders Conor McCaughan and Michael Fassbender as executive producers. The film is a co-production with Element Pictures and Film4 with Rory Gilmartin and Kate Glover acting on their behalf. Other executive producers include Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, Sam Lavender and Daniel Battsek of Film4, Celine Haddad of the Irish Film Board, and Sarah Dillon of the recently announced Western Region Audiovisual Producer’s Fund (WRAP Fund). Finance comes from the Irish Film Board, Film4 and the WRAP Fund.
Everyone at DMC is very grateful for the incredible support from Film4, IFB, Element, Altitude and the WRAP fund in getting us to this point. We feel very lucky to have an amazing cast and crew working on the film, and can’t wait to get started.
Daniel Emmerson, Producer – DMC Films
Nick Rowland and Joseph Murtagh’s work has marked them out as exciting director and writer talent to watch and we are delighted to be working with them and our friends at DMC and Film4 to bring Calm With Horses to audiences worldwide.
Mike Runagall – Managing Director of Altitude Film Sales
Element Pictures Distribution will release the film in Ireland, with Altitude Films releasing in the UK and Altitude Film Sales handling international sales rights.