Until recently, writer-director Nick Murphy’s credits mostly included a few episodes of the odd TV series or documentary. He’s now starting to make a big name for himself with his first feature film, The Awakening, starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, due out in November.
Murphy is now set to go behind the camera again for another feature, Blood, which is to be an adaptation of the Bill Gallagher’s TV series, Conviction, which Gallagher will himself adapt, ScreenDaily report.
The project is already taking shape nicely, with three fantastic lead actors attached in the form of Paul Bettany (Priest), Brian Cox (X-Men 2), and Stephen Graham (Snatch), the last of which Murphy has already worked with on the 2009 TV series, Occupation.
Neal Street Productions, whose credits include Jarhead, Starter For 10, The Kite Runner, and Revolutionary Road, has already secured funding from BBC Films and the BFI, which is terrific news, and production is scheduled to begin in January next year.
Blood will be,
“about two policemen who kill a murder suspect and are then plunged into chaos when they are forced to investigate their own crime.”
Those two roles of the policeman, who are brothers, will presumably be filled by the awesome Bettany and Graham, both absolutely fantastic actors, and Cox will likely be playing their father, who, according to Wikipedia, in the original series is fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer’s.
I missed the original TV series when it was shown back in 2004, but I’m definitely tempted to hunt it down and watch it soon, because it sounds pretty awesome. As much as I tend to watch American television and films more than I do British, I must admit that the BBC often gets it so right when it comes to making good television.
Just from that basic premise, I can already see Bettany, who is by far one of my favourite British actors working at the moment, being beyond amazing in this role, and it really can’t come to the big screen fast enough for me. Hopefully with production already scheduled for the start of next year, I won’t have to wait too long to see the final product. This is going to be something to look forward to for sure.
