Norwegian director Liv Ullman will begin shooting a new €4.3m film adaptation of the Swedish play ‘Miss Julie’ at Castle Coole in Co Fermanagh this month, funded by the Irish Film Board and Northern Ireland Screen, starring Colin Farrell and two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain.
The film is an Irish/Norwegian/English co-production, produced by Tristan Orpen Lynch of Dublin-based Subotica, Maipo Films in Norway, and Apocalypse Films in London.
Based on the 1888 play by August Strindberg, ‘Miss Julie’ follows attempts by an aristocrat’s daughter to encourage her father’s valet to seduce her - in an examination of inter-class divisions and sexuality.
Fresh from her Oscar nomination for Best Actress for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ - in which she played the CIA agent who dedicated her career to relentlessly hunting Osama Bin Laden- Jessica Chastain will star in the title role of the daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat.
Colin Farrell will co-star as the valet, engaged to an Irish cook played by Samantha Morton, with the story unfolding over a midsummer’s night in Fermanagh in 1890 rather than the original setting of Sweden.
Mike Figgis previously directed a film version of the play in 1999, starring Saffron Burrows and Peter Mullan in the main roles.
The 19th century play of ‘Miss Julie’ courted controversy for its depiction of sexually-charged subject matter and was banned in the UK for 50 years, shocking critics across Europe, but is now widely considered a critically-acclaimed masterpiece.
Colin Farrell’s latest projects include fantasy adventure ‘Winter’s Tale’ - filmed in New York, alongside Will Smith and Russell Crowe - and ‘Saving Mr Banks’, starring Emma Thompson as the author of Mary Poppins who meets Walt Disney played by Tom Hanks.
His next film ‘Solace’, currently in pre-production and set to be filmed in Detroit in May, is about a doctor with psychic abilities who uses his gifts to hunt down a serial killer.
‘Dead Man Down’, also starring Farrell and ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ star Roomi Rapace, is released in Irish cinemas on 3rd May.
