‘The Usual Suspects’ producer Robert Jones is to produce Northern Irish feature film ‘A Patch Of Fog’ after the project’s script won Northern Ireland Screen’s New Talent Focus scheme.
Michael McCartney and John Cairns’ script was announced as the winner of this year’s scheme at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend.
The New Talent Focus is aimed at local writers in Northern Ireland hoping to develop projects with an ultra low-budget, which in the past was set at £200,000 or less.
British producer Jones (The Constant Gardener, Gosford Park) will produce the feature for his production company, The Jones Company. Northern Ireland Screen will fund the project alongside the British Film Institute and Film 4.
Speaking to IFTN, screenwriter Michael McCarthy described ‘A Patch Of Fog’ as “a dark bromance”. He added: “It’s about a university teacher who gets caught shoplifting by a security guard, who won’t let him go. He becomes his new best friend and says ‘I won’t call the cops if you come and have a pint with me’. From there a twisted romance of sorts unfolds.”
Discussions with regard funding and the production schedule for the project is at an early stage, though IFTN understands that filming on ‘A Patch Of Fog’ will get underway “later this year”.
Jones has also optioned McCartney and Cairns American-set script ‘Sterile,’ a psychological thriller involving a lovesick sociopath at an IVF clinic.
