Game of Thrones Aidan Gillen, whose Lord Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish character was a pivotal part of the show’s Season 7 finale, has been lined up to play famed novelist James Joyce in Robert Mullen’s James and Lucia.
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James Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century. Best known for his 1922 novel Ulysses, his other well-known work includes his collection of short stories Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake.
Written and directed by Mad to be Normal’s Robert Mullan, James and Lucia focuses on the famed Irish writer’s life as he writes Finnegans Wake and his daughter Lucia’s mental health deteriorates. Lucia, a professional dancer, was once treated by Carl Jung and diagnosed as schizophrenic in the mid-1930s; a failed romance with playwright Samuel Beckett was particularly damaging to her.
The film tells of the heroic struggle of the near-blind Joyce to protect and support his beloved daughter. That role of Lucia is yet to be cast.
Shoreline Entertainment’s Morris Ruskin, Jesus Gonzalez’s Calach Films and Mullan’s Sisyphus Films are producers. Filming is due to commence at the start of 2018 in Dublin and Luxembourg.
Alongside his long stretch in Game of Thrones, Gillen joined the cast of Peaky Blinders for its fourth season alongside Cillian Murphy, He also has appeared in the series The Wire and will reprise his role as Janson in the upcoming Maze Runner: The Death Cure which is set for a release early in 2018.
