Saoirse, meet Paul
Our top talent are lined up for ‘mind-bending’ science-f iction blockbuster, adapted from bestselling book
TWO of Ireland’s hottest acting talents – Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal – are to star together in a new science fiction movie.
The Little Women and Normal People actors will headline Foe, an adaptation of Iain Reid’s bestselling novel.
The film is described as ‘a taut, sensual, psychological mind-bender set in the near future where corporate power and environmental decay are ravaging
‘Ronan is so alive and unfiltered’
the planet’.
Junior (Mescal) and Hen (Ronan) play a couple who have been married for seven years and are living a solitary life on their isolated farm.
One night, a stranger knocks on their door, bringing news that throws their lives into turmoil. Junior has been randomly selected to travel to a large, experimental space station orbiting Earth.
Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Hen won’t get to miss him, because she will be accompanied by someone every minute of the day.
The film will be directed and co-written by Garth Davis with the book’s author, and filming will start in Australia in January.
‘I’ve been on the hunt to do something in sci-fi, it was always on my bucket list,’ Davis told Deadline, the entertainment news website.
‘I read Foe and could not put it down. It’s incredibly suspenseful, very moving and dealt with sci-fi in a most grounded way that spoke to where we are heading as a society, with a lot of the questions we all have, explored in a profound way.
‘The point of the movie is that corporate power and environmental decay is literally eating away at the natural world, not just the environment but from a human point of view.
‘We’re losing our self-determination and vibrancy. What I love about Saoirse is, you see her on screen and she is just so unfiltered and alive.
‘Paul Mescal, he is just a normal guy and you believe he’s married to her and that they come from the same part of the world, which they do in reality. I buy them as a rural couple,’ he said.
The Australian director previously made Lion, a film about a man who uses Google Earth to find his birth mother in India, which received six Oscar nominations, including that of best picture.