The Cannes market heats up even further with a new James Marsh movie on the scene. Deadline reports that Marsh will direct an adaptation of Kevin Barry‘s 2019 novel “Night Boat To Tangier” with Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson in the leads. Ruth Negga will also star in the film. That’s quite a catch for director Marsh, who already has his Samuel Beckett biopic on the way with Gabriel Byrne and Aidan Gillen leading the cast there. Another proper Irish adventure for Marsh, then; it’s hard to say which pair of male leads is better between the two.
READ MORE: Brie Larson And Paul Dano Join Ruben Ostlünd On The 2023 Cannes Jury
But Fassbender and Gleeson get the real adventure between Marsh’s two films. “Night Boat To Tangier” follows Maurice (Fassbender) and Charlie (Gleeson), a pair of Irish drug smugglers who wash up in Southern Spain to revisit old haunts, rekindle old flames, and stomp around the local criminal underworld while searching for Maurice’s estranged daughter, Dilly. Sound like a hang-out film for the ages? Well, it just may be: Barry’s novel was long-listed for the Booker Prize, the UK’s most prestigious literature award, and was one of The New York Times‘ Top 10 Books of 2019. What’s more: Barry adapts his novel for the big screen.
And Marsh will keep his take on Barry’s novel low-budget at just $18 million. He’s at Cannes right now shopping “Night Boat To Tangier” through Ashok Amritraj‘s Hyde Park Entertainment with co-producers Andrew Eaton and Conor McCaughan and Fassbender. And while the premise of the film sounds like “In Bruges” but in the South of Spain, Marsh told Deadline the story is more female-driven than anything else. “Well, it may seem like a man’s film but it’s actually driven in part by the female characters and their choices and decisions and the relationships they have with the men,” Marsh explained. “So, on the surface, it looks like it’s these two Irish gangsters getting on but that’s really a Trojan horse because it’s more of a multi-dimensional love story between these three characters [Fassbender, Gleeson, and Negga].
There’s also the film’s central search for Dilly, who Marsh hasn’t cast yet. “Because Maurice and Charlie are on this quest for Dilly, and we’re not sure who the father is, and neither are they, it becomes this paternal love story, or fantasy of it, which is being worked out in every scene,” continued Marsh. “The power shifts between them and the baggage they’ve left behind is catching up with them.” And Marsh promises a rueful, downbeat aspect to “Night Boat To Tangier,” too. It’s about people running out of options,” said the director, “and so what they are trying to do is to try and reach the only good thing they ever had in their lives emotionally, which is their daughter.”
Fassbender chimed in with his take on Barry’s novel. “The men are lost and the women are calling the shots throughout this story,” said the actor, “and I think it’s so important, especially now, that we continue to examine and interrogate our traditional notions of masculinity. The complexity for me is in these familiar “gangster” characters being revealed as having much less control than we realize at first.”
Marsh plans to shoot “Night Boat To Tangier” in Ireland and Spain on a seven-week production later this year. And Eaton thinks the film will have an immediate audience, particularly from those who like Martin McDonagh‘s work. “I am a big fan of Martin McDonagh,” Eaton said, “but to me this feels more commercial and accessible than “The Banshees of Inisherin” because it’s a little less weird and more believable.”
Well, “Banshees” is beautiful because it’s so weird, but if “Night Boat To Tangier” is anything like McDonagh’s latest, James Marsh will have a huge hit on his hands. There are a lot of hot packages at the Cannes market so far, but “Night Boat To Tangier” may be the hottest.