Cú Chulainn ‘in the present day’ movie in the works from Kin creator

Stephen Porzio

EXCLUSIVE: Kin co-creator Ciaran Donnelly already has an Irish actor in mind to play the legendary warrior hero.

A film that is being dubbed “the first Irish mythology movie” is in the works from Ciaran Donnelly (co-creator of Kin) and Stephen Shields (Abigail, The Hole in the Ground), JOE can exclusively reveal.

Speaking to JOE ahead of a Film Ireland and Screen Ireland-presented event titled ‘Screen Sessions: Looking Forward with Creativity’ this week, Donnelly revealed that he and Shields have been working on a script that the Irish crime drama creator described as Cú Chulainn “in the present day”.

Also acclaimed for his directing work on high-profile TV shows like Altered Carbon, The Tudors, Vikings and The Wheel of Time, Donnelly said he has spent years trying to crack how to represent Irish mythology onscreen.

He explained: “I think we do have this great untapped well of stories in our mythologies. And the difficulty is that it’s not like you can point to one piece of IP or one book or one huge book or one huge series of books, you know, like Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones and kind of go: ‘Look, here are 10 books or 15 books that 50 million people have already bought, so you know there’s an audience.’ So it’s sort of tricky.

“I’ve been trying to figure out – as I know a number of people have been trying to figure out, a number of significant people – how do we introduce the world, the cinema audience or the TV audience to this world and these characters.”

He then added: “This actually will be the first time I’ve spoken about this outside of my little tiny cohort of people, so a slight exclusive.

“So, I’ve come up with a way of introducing the Cú Chulainn and the world of Cú Chulainn in a movie in the present day. That’s basically the story. The pitch is that.

“I’ve developed with Screen Ireland and Irish writer Stephen Shields and we’re basically two drafts into the script.

“I’m really hopeful that January, early February, I’ll start taking the script out to the market.

“It is really exciting and we need a big fancy Irish actor to come along and play the part.”

While stating that studios have an “aversion” to financing projects that do not have a proven IP behind them, Donnelly said that he believes his take on the legendary Irish warrior hero is a “smart concept” that will introduce people worldwide to the stories of Irish mythology.

On the difficulties of getting such a project off the ground, he explained: “One of the big tricky things about making what appears to be like a fantasy epic mythology-type thing is that it’s really very expensive to do that.

“And studios have an aversion, particularly at the moment I think, to financing things that don’t have a proven IP behind them.

“And we all as Irish people can say: ‘Well, of course Cú Chulainn and Morrígan are proven and this is what we grow up with.’ But the world outside of us and perhaps the diaspora doesn’t really know it.

“So you’re introducing new new concepts and new story and new characters to the world, which is what we think film should be doing all the time anyway, but we’re in a world of remakes and franchises and IP-heavy sort of stuff.

“So, it has to be a home run in that regard. But I think we have found the way to do it. Watch this space.”

Later in the JOE interview, we asked Donnelly about Irish actors he would love to work with and in response, he suggested an actor that could make for a great Cú Chulainn.

“I want to work with them all. I want to work with Paul Mescal. He’s my Cú Chulainn,” he said.

“I want to work with Colin Farrell. I want to work with Saoirse Ronan obviously. My dream is that they all come and be in the first Irish mythology movie.”

Happening on Friday (13 December), the free live event from Screen Ireland will consist of an afternoon of in-depth conversations on craft, career and creativity with the artists and decision-makers working behind the scenes of the Irish film and TV industry.