Belfast-based Causeway Pictures is launching its a Gothic label, which is focused on genre films that have inspiration from Irish legends.
Causeway MD Chris Patterson is teaming with writer/director Richard Crawford and writer/director Spence Wright to plan a ten-film slate to be produced over the next five years. The films will include Wright’s ‘Vampires vs Leprechauns’ and the series ‘Hy-Brasil’, set on a phantom island.
As Chris Patterson, explains, “Irish myths and legends are rich with wondrous and terrible creatures. The Irish Gothic banner will put them in front of a modern horror audience and create a lasting legacy that hopefully will become a genre of its own.”
The label kicked off last week in London at a stage reading, hosted by Northern Ireland Screen, of ‘The Morrigan’ by writer/director Richard Crawford. Aisling Walsh directed the stage reading at the Soho Theatre, which starred ‘Games of Thrones’ alums Fintan McKeown and Hannah Murray with Ciaran McMenamin.
‘The Morrigan’ is set in Elizabethan Ireland, when an ancient demon is unleashed in an isolated fort. A young girl is the only one to realise that if you kill the demon, it possesses you.
The filmmakers plan to make the film in the style of Ben Wheatley’s low-budget ‘A Field In England’. They are planning two sequels as well.
Causeway, set up by Patterson and Paddy McCarney in 2009, recently added a US office in New York.
