Director Declan O’Dwyer Also Working On ‘Noir Western’ “Broken Cove”
As we mentioned yesterday, we have a bit of a soft-spot for corrupt cop thrillers, even if the vast majority of entries to the genre are closer to “Pride and Glory” than to “Serpico.” But for various reasons, it’s never really crossed the Atlantic — while the UK is stuffed with gangster flicks, both great and terrible, the fact that British officers are, generally speaking, unarmed seems to make them less enticing for filmmakers, “Hot Fuzz” aside.
But things seem to be shifting: the next few months brings Jason Statham and Paddy Considine cracking heads in the capital in “Blitz,” while the long-gestating big-screen version of 1970s TV show “The Sweeney” is still creaking forward, and “Shifty” director Eran Creevy is working on the excellent script “Welcome to the Punch,” which will hopefully move forward later in the year. And now there’s one more project joining them.
Screen Daily reports that rising star Luke Evans will appear alongside Robert Carlyle in “Dogs of Law,” an action-thriller set in London about an undercover cop (Evans) investigating a corrupt colleague (Carlyle). The script is from newcomers Matthew Cooke and Vincent Lund, and will be directed by TV veteran Declan O’Dwyer, who was behind the pilot for the cult British series “Being Human.” Producer Michael Ford is currently in talks with sales agents and financiers, calling the film “very international in its vision” and the $3.7 million project is heading for a summer shoot.
It’s a fairly potent combination: Carlyle is obviously a superb actor, even if in recent years his work’s mostly involved the ignoble likes of “24: Redemption” and “Stargate Universe,” while Evans’ star is firmly on the rise: after breaking out as the highlight of “Tamara Drewe,” last year, he’s got key roles coming up in “The Three Musketeers” and “Immortals,” and replaced Jeremy Renner as the co-lead, opposite John Cusack, in the period thriller “The Raven.”
O’Dwyer’s seemingly on the up in the film world as well; other than “Dogs of Law” (which is a pretty awful title, it should be said…) he’s also written the script for what’s planned to be his second directorial effort — a film noir western entitled “Broken Cove.” The period piece is apparently influenced by the Coen Brothers, and follows ‘two warring families… in a deserted coastal village in post-war 1950s Britain.’
It’s being produced by O’Dwyer’s company 4th Wall, and Coastal Productions, which is owned by the actor-singer Robson Green, and has a number of names attached, both promising — Bernard Hill, Linda Bassett and Jason Flemyng — and unpromising — vicious idiot Danny Dyer, former boy-band member Antony Costa. This one could go either way — it’s meant to shoot in the North-East of England at the end of the year, but we imagine that may shift back if “Dogs of Law” does get moving in the summer.
