Cillian Murphy is to star in his latest project, Steve.
The film which is also being produced by Murphy, will see the actor star as a head teacher from a reforms school trying to keep young offenders in line, while dealing with his own personal struggles.
Steve is based on the novella, Shy, written by author Max Porter, who previously worked with Murphy for the writer's book, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. It will also be directed by Tim Mielants, who worked with Murphy on Small Things Like These.
Steve will also see Cillian Murphy reunite with Small Things Like These co star, Emily Watson.
When asked about whose idea it was to have Steve as Irish in the film, Murphy joked: "We kind of backed ourselves into a corner with that one!".
"When we did the adaptation of Grief is the Thing with Feathers for the stage, which Enda [Walsh] adapted, we all decided that it would be again smarter just to not have him be English. You take away one other kind of 'veil' [from the performance], you know? You just take it away. And the amount of Irish teachers living in the UK and social workers and carers, it's insane".
Murphy's latest project tips its hat to teachers, and their ability to change lives. The actor who hailed from a family of teachers, did insist that this was not his main concern when he first decided to make Steve his next film.
"That actually honestly came later", he stated.
Murphy continued: "The first impulse was to make more work with Max. We had just made Small Things Like These, and I really wanted to work with Tim (Mielants, Small Things Like These director) again. It was Max's idea. We had actually talked about the idea of somebody who was a teacher or somebody in care [for a film]. Max had the idea to go back to Shy, which I was very, very familiar with as a novel, but we both agreed [it] was unadaptable. But then Max had the brilliant idea to just adapt the world of the novel rather than the novel absolutely."
"But then, as I began to think back on my own childhood and adolescence, the fact that both my parents worked in education, and my grandfather was a teacher, and all my aunties and uncles, I began to just realise how much part of my upbringing it was," Murphy continues.
"Then, [I] inevitably started thinking about being in school and what you were like in school and how the good teachers had such a good impact and the other ones not so much! So, then it all began to come back to me. Like the way stuff hits you in middle life, where you begin to reappraise everything and your respect for your parents just deepens and deepens and deepens. So, it was kind of nice timing. And also, my kids were of an age where they were kind of beginning to leave school. It was all sort of a nice melting pot of coincidence and good timing".
Steve also marks the second instalment from Murphy's company, Big Things Films, as he also serves as producer for this movie.
"Alan Moloney is my producing partner and he's a vastly experienced producer with an amazing insight into how you can build, finance, and shoot a film," he explains. "So, I think combined with him, I'm learning a great deal.
"There's many, many things about it that I really, really enjoy, especially as well being in the post-production, which you're kind of locked out of as an actor! Rightfully so - you don't want actors sitting around every part of it! But I love the mechanical nature of putting a film together. I love the grading process. I adore the scoring part of it. I adore the mixing. That kind of... the magic dust that happens when you're in post-production with a film. So, I absolutely love the whole process".
The film also shows Murphy's ability to choose the right collaborators to work with, along with his knack for picking the right jobs as an actor.
"What I enjoy most about it is being able to put people together and seeing how work can come from it, or seeing how these people bounce off each other," he said.
"Putting Max in a room with Tim Mielants (Steve director) was just one of the great days of my career, because I could see it simmering and then they just took off. Things like that are very satisfying to me - to be able to work with Eileen Walsh, for example, on Small Things Like These, to be able to work with Emily Watson on Small Things Like These and then work with her again on Steve".
"The ambition is to make good work," he concludes. "And if you've got friends that are as gifted as he (Max) is or as gifted as Tim is, why not put them together and see what happens?".
Steve will arrive on cinema screens, as well as being available on Netflix on October 3.
Last week, Murphy surprised everyone when he appeared to perform a live DJ set at the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival in Cork. More on this here.
