‘Starred Up' – director David Mackenzie’s prison drama filmed in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast – has been picked up by Fox Searchlight for UK distribution, following a successful run at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals.
Principal photography took place in Belfast in February, starring ‘Skins’ actor Jack O’Connell in the lead role of a young offender who is transferred to an adult prison where a prison psychologist helps him turn his life around.
Irish crew members who worked on the film include Emmy-winning sound recordist Ronan Hill (‘Game of Thrones’); costume designer Susan Scott (‘The Food Guide to Love’); production designer Tom McCullagh (‘Grabbers’) and locations manager Catherine Geary (‘Good Vibrations’).
Actors Rupert Friend (‘Homeland’, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) and Ben Mendelsohn (‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Killing Them Softly’) co-star as the prison psychologist and a fellow prisoner respectively.
Written by Jonathan Asser and produced by Gillian Berrie ('Song for a Raggy Boy', 'Dogville') for Sigma Films, the film was executive-produced by Katherine Butler, Sam Lavender, James Atherton, Jan Pace, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden and David Mackenzie.
Fox Searchlight Pictures co-president Nancy Utley said of the distribution deal: ‘We are most proud to distribute David Mackenzie’s immersive, visceral drama, with its vivid sense of place, involving storyline, and rich and authentic characters.’
‘Starred Up’ was co-produced by Film4, Creative Scotland, Quickfire Films, Northern Ireland Screen and Lip Sync Productions, and supported by Invest NI and the European Regional Development Fund.
A clip from the film, selected for this year's TIFF, can be viewed below:
