ScreenDaily is reporting that Australian star Toni Collette and English actress Hermione Corfied have signed on to star in Irish director Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever. The project will be presented to potential international distributors by Epic Pictures Group at the European Film Market in Berlin over the next few days.
The film, which was also written by Hardiman (Happy Valley), sees a marine biology student find herself isolated from her superstitious trawler crew as they struggle to overcome a deadly parasite in their water supply. Collette, who previously starred in Gerard Barrett’s Glassland, will play the Captain, with Corfied (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as the student,
Brendan McCarthy and John McDonnell of Dublin-based Fantastic Films produce, with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Sweden’s Bright Pictures. Epic Pictures Group will executive produce and co-finance, with financial support also coming from the Irish Film Board, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Wallimage, and Film i Väst, as well as from the Creative Europe MEDIA programme.
Fantastic Films have a long history of strong genre films, having given us Wakewood, The Last Days on Mars, Let Us Prey, The Hallow, Cherry Tree, I Am Not a Serial Killer, Nails, and most recently Muse, which plays at the upcoming Audi Dublin International Film Festival on Wednesday, February 28th.
Epic Pictures Group also have a strong background in genre film and most recently teamed with Tailored Films on the Irish Gothic horror The Lodgers, which will be in Irish cinemas from March 9th.
The script for Sea Fever was shortlisted for the AMPAS Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting 2015. It was selected at the Frontieres Film Festival as one of 12 showcase projects, as well as at the Les Arcs Film Festival as one of 9 showcase projects, and won a prize at the London Film Awards.
Sea Fever is due to start filming of the Irish coast in July.