James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan is returning to the spy genre in a new film project titled A SPY’S GUIDE TO SURVIVAL. The film is being directed by Simon Barry, the creator behind Netflix’s supernatural action series WARRIOR NUN. Barry said in a statement: “As a longtime Pierce Brosnan fan, I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside someone I admire for their craft, character and humanity.”
An award-winning film about people living in flats in the New Lodge areas of north Belfast is to open this year’s Docs Ireland festival next month. THE FLATS, a documentary by Alessandra Celesia, details the lives of residents living in and around New Lodge. It follows four people from the working-class, Catholic community as they revisit the collective memories that shaped their lives and the district they live in.
Irish writer-director Frank Berry’s new drama, AISHA, is now in theatres. Starring Josh O’Connor (THE CROWN) and Letitia Wright (BLACK PANTHER), the film charts the experiences of a young Nigerian woman as she seeks international protection in Ireland. Caught in limbo for years in Ireland’s immigration system, Aisha Osagie develops a friendship with former prisoner Conor Healy who she meets at one of the accommodation centers.
The Emerald Isle has rarely looked greener than it does in THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN, now in Irish theatres. Best known for his documentaries, Irish director Pat Collins’ latest film turns entirely to fiction: THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN is based on a novel by John McGahern, his last. Set roughly in the early ’80s, it is about a couple living in the Irish countryside, the people they talk to, the landscape around them, the seasons passing — and death, gestured at indirectly in the title.
THE LOST DAUGHTER stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are set to reunite for an adaption of the book HAMNET, with Chloé Zhao on directing duties. The historical fiction novel reimagines the story of William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes, who is left struggling to come to terms following the death of her only son Hamnet. The book has earned O’Farrell critical praise for her work, winning the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
SUGAR star Colin Farrell has joined Tilda Swinton in the Netflix film THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER. The story follows a high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation. Later this year, Farrell has the anticipated Batman Max series THE PENGUIN bowing in which he reprises his role as Gotham City’s most infamous gangster.
FOE star Saoirse Ronan’s next film THE OUTRUN will hit Irish theatres on September 27. According to The Hollywood Reporter Saoirse’s character will be named Rona and the plot will follow her journey as she finishes rehab and heads to Scotland’s wild Orkney Islands for the first time in a decade. While Rona attempts to reconnect with her childhood, she revisits the landscape in which she grew up and along the way, discovers memories that ” merge with the more recent challenging events that have set her on the path to recovery.”
BANSHEES OF INISHERIN star Kerry Condon is the latest actor to visit the Criterion movie closet. The acclaimed actor shares how Nancy Savoca’s DOGFIGHT profoundly affected her views of acting and love, praises the way David Gordon Green conjures the feeling of youth in GEORGE WASHINGTON, and selects endlessly entertaining favorites, from VALLEY OF THE DOLLS to THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.