My conversation with director James Marsh was one of my personal highlights of the Sundance Film Festival, not just because he somewhat infamously went off on Kevin Smith, but because the guy is smart and engaging in a way not all great filmmakers can be. Marsh is most famous for his documentaries Man on Wire (which won the Oscar a few years ago) and now Project Nim, which premiered at Sundance and comes to theaters later this year. Even before Nim makes it to theaters, though, Marsh will be moving on to his next project, and this one isn't going to be a doc at all.
Talking to Vulture, Marsh said that Clive Owen and up-and-comer Andrea Riseborough have been brought on for an untitled espionage thriller, which shoots in Dublin in early May. Marsh compares it to the Red Riding Trilogy-- he directed the 1980 installment of the British crime series-- and told Vulture, ""It's very exciting to be doing something like that now, to have that kind of canvas to fill." Owen and Riseborough will be filling in roles once occupied by Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall; Riseborough plays a former IRA terrorist who turns informer as the two halves of Ireland approach peace in the 1990s.
At one point the project was known as Shadow Dancer but Marsh is moving away from it, joking "it sounds a bit like Billy Elliott or something like that." The movie will likely get attention thanks to Owen and Marsh'a documentary success-- it's also got Gillian Anderson in a supporting role, which doesn't hurt-- but I'm most interested to see more work out of Riseborough, who was sparkling and fantastic in last year's criminally underseen Made in Dagenham and appeared briefly in Never Let Me Go. We all know Owen is a star who makes everything better when he's in it, but this sounds like a chance for Riseborough to really show us what she's got.
